


Spooky Special

by blurryfics



Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Alcohol, Autumn, Best Friends, F/M, Fluff, Ghost Hunting, Halloween, M/M, Mutual Pining, Parties, Spooky, fall - Freeform, pumpkin patch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-06 06:26:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 23,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21222053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blurryfics/pseuds/blurryfics
Summary: Pumpkin carving. Halloween party. Ghost hunting. In your eyes, these were the essential activities in order to have the spookiest Halloween yet, and of course you had to bring your two best friends along for the ride. While you’re determined to make this year the best yet, your friends have other ideas.Will this year live up to your expectations? Or will some unexpected shenanigans make it all come crashing down?





	1. Before You Read

Hey, everyone! Just wanted to pop in and let you know some information about this miniseries before it starts posting tomorrow :)

  * This series is a collab with my friend Sav, also known as @beanfic! Make sure to check out her fics :)
  * The reader in this series uses they/them pronouns!
  * The point of view switches throughout each chapter. This will be clearly marked, but we just wanted to give you a heads up!
  * We are by no means professional ghost hunters which means that the information included in this miniseries may not be entirely accurate. However, the characters in this series are _also_ not professional ghost hunters, so it kinda fits?
  * Sav was in charge of outlining the entire series and Kae brought the ideas to life (Haha, get it? Because Halloween)! 


	2. Pumpkin Palooza

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: None
> 
> Word Count: 5610
> 
> Author's Note: I hope all of you enjoy the first part of the spooky special! :)

**Tyler’s POV**

The sounds of whatever song was playing on the radio carried softly into the bathroom as I stood brushing my teeth. I bopped my head slowly from side to side, barely matching the rhythm of the drums. Sunlight filtered in through the window on the far side of the room, illuminating half of my body. A few shadows danced across my face as I stared at myself in the mirror, scrutinizing my appearance.

The song came to an end, which I took as my cue to spit out my toothpaste and rinse my mouth. In my bedroom, I could just make out the sound of my phone vibrating on the bedside table. I dropped my toothbrush into its holder and leaned closer to the mirror, using one hand to run over my scruff. It was getting long, but not long enough for me to consider taking the time to shave it down. After taking a couple moments to run my hands through my damp hair and fix it to my liking, I headed into my bedroom to see what I had missed.

My phone was lit up with a couple messages from the group chat that I had with Josh and Y/N. I read over them as I walked out to the kitchen to make myself some cereal.

** _Y/N: _ ** _good morning, my dudes_

** _Josh: _ ** _good morning :) you’re up early today_

** _Y/N: _ ** _casper woke me up early this morning because he wanted to go on a walk. trust me, i wish i was still sleeping :p but at least i have you two to talk to all morning :)_

I sighed. Three messages in and the two of them were already starting the flirting for the day. It was something that I had quickly grown used to. I had never really been bothered by their near constant back and forth, although I _was _bothered by neither of them being bold enough to just admit their feelings for the other. Even if I tried to step in and hint at their mutual feelings, they both brushed it off as me playing around.

That’s why I had come up with my master plan.

** _Tyler:_ ** _ good morning_

After sending my message, I set my phone down on the counter while I made myself a quick bowl of cereal. My hands had been off my phone for a grand total of five seconds before it buzzed again. I looked over at it while I poured my cereal.

** _Y/N: _ ** _ty! how’s it going? now that you’re both up, are plans still on for today? it’s day one of our spooky extravaganza!_

** _Josh: _ ** _i’m down if you two are_

I put the cereal away before sending my response.

** _Tyler: _ ** _i’m in. i’ll pick you up around noon?_

** _Y/N: _ ** _are you picking up josh first? :(_

** _Tyler: _ ** _it makes the most sense, so yes_

** _Y/N: _ ** _just once i want to be the one who gets picked up first_

** _Josh: _ ** _maybe you would get picked up first if you didn’t live on the opposite side of town_

** _Y/N: _ ** _it’s not my fault!_

I shook my head as I grabbed a spoon. I had watched this same exact argument unfold hundreds of times before, and it always ended the same way.

** _Josh: _ ** _hmm i think it is. there are plenty of houses for sale_

** _Y/N: _ ** _you think i can afford them? not all of us have money from all our successful albums and tours, joshua_

** _Josh: _ ** _you were the one who said you wanted to get picked up first!_

** _Tyler: _ ** _alright, you two, i’ll see you at noon_

I set my phone down on the coffee table without waiting for a response and sank into the couch. The remote was already sitting on the cushions, making it easy for me to grab and switch on the TV. My phone vibrating against the coffee table soon become nothing more than background noise.

* * *

Josh dug his hands deep into the pockets of his sweatshirt as he walked down the path towards my car. He smiled as he opened the door and slid into the passenger seat, immediately moving his hands in front of my air vents.

“My heater isn’t working properly,” he explained, skipping over a hello. “I’ve been in sweatshirts and sweatpants since last night.”

“Do you have someone coming to fix it?” I asked as I pulled out of the driveway.

“Yeah, there’s some people stopping by to take a look today. I’m hoping they can get it fixed by tonight.”

“If not, you can always come crash at my place. I wouldn’t want you freezing to death.”

“Thanks.”

After a few more minutes of warming up his hands, Josh leaned back in his seat and dropped his hands to his lap. He yawned loudly as he did so.

“Yikes, sorry.”

“Tired?” I laughed.

“Yeah. I was up late talking to Y/N last night.”

“How late?”

“Like, I’m not sure, three in the morning, maybe?”

“Oh geez. Are they ok?”

“Yeah, yeah. They’re fine.”

“Why so late, then?”

“I just really like talking to them. I don’t know what it is.”

“Yeah, you do.”

“Stop.”

I turned and shot Josh a look. His cheeks were dusted pink, but he had been in the car long enough that I knew it wasn’t from the cold outside.

“Come on, man. You’ve already told me how you feel about Y/N, there’s no need to hide it now.”

“It’s not that.” He shook his head. “I’m just… I don’t think it’s going to happen. I can’t keep letting myself get my hopes up like this.”

“Josh, you and I both know there’s something there.”

“Is there?”

“Yes.”

And I was going to make sure that both of them finally realized that.

* * *

**Your POV**

“It’s colder than I thought it was going to be,” you said as you stepped out of the car. The makeshift parking lot was jam packed with cars and families making their way towards the farm. You pulled your sleeves down a little further over your hands.

“This is what my house felt like last night,” Josh said, pulling his beanie a little lower on his head. “It was awful.”

“I told you that you could have come over! But _somebody_ didn’t want to make the drive.”

You just barely noticed the way Tyler turned to Josh with raised eyebrows out of the corner of your eye. A brief desire to ask what that look was all about crossed your mind, but you decided against feeding into it. It was probably better that you didn’t ask.

“It was like one in the morning and you were already in bed! I didn’t want to make you get up.”

“Hey, I am _not_ going to listen to the two of you bickering all day. Let’s go,” Tyler said, tilting his head towards the entrance of the farm.

“Can we get something to drink?” you asked, falling into step with the boys. “It might be nice to have a warm drink to carry around so our fingers don’t freeze.”

“Yes!” Tyler grinned at you. “Let’s get donuts too.”

“Good thinking.”

You held a hand out to Tyler who happily engaged in the high five. Josh smiled at the two of you and shook his head.

“Hey, did I already say you look nice today, Y/N?” Josh added.

You looked down at the jeans and flannel combo you had opted for today. It hadn’t looked particularly special when you were studying yourself in the mirror, but you couldn’t deny the butterflies in your stomach at Josh’s compliment.

“Thanks, Josh,” you smiled. “You look nice too.”

A gust of wind hit right as you finished speaking, prickling at your cheeks. Josh’s face immediately flushed a dusty shade of pink, and you were unable to tell if the color was from your compliment or the cool air. Biting back a sigh, you turned away from Josh and continued to follow Tyler through the crowd towards the building that housed donuts and hot cider.

“Ok, what are we thinking?” Tyler asked. You didn’t immediately register his question at first, you were too busy enjoying the relief from the crisp autumn air outside.

“Powdered sugar,” Josh answered immediately.

You turned to him with furrowed eyebrows, “You would rather have powdered sugar than pumpkin donuts?”

“Just one or two,” he shrugged. “I like powdered donuts.”

“What are you thinking, Ty?”

“I definitely want a pumpkin donut. Or maybe a cinnamon one? I can’t decide.”

“Oh wait, they have a variety bag,” Josh chimed in, stepping closer to you. He rested one hand on your lower back as he used the other to point at the menu. “See it? Three powdered donuts, three pumpkin donuts, and three cinnamon donuts.”

“Would you be willing to trade your pumpkin donut for my powdered sugar one?” you asked.

Josh looked at you, furrowing his eyebrows slightly. “I think I could be convinced.”

“Then I think that sounds good. Ty, you in?”

He nodded, “I’m in.”

You made casual conversation with the boys as you stood in line. Josh continued to stand close to you, not that you were complaining. His close proximity meant it was easier for you to take in his body heat, as well as the faint laundry detergent scent coming from his sweatshirt. The only part you weren’t enjoying so much was Tyler shooting you knowing looks every so often.

With donuts and warm drinks in hand, you found a nice stack of hay bales outside to sit on. They were tall enough that they blocked most of the wind, making the temperature much more bearable. You got comfy on one of them and immediately reached into the bag for your first donut.

“Cheers,” Tyler said, holding out his own donut.

You giggled as you tapped your own treat against his and Josh’s. Josh immediately took a large bite of his donut, covering most of his mouth in powdered sugar. You watched in amusement as he attempted to lick most of it off, but there were some spots he couldn’t quite reach.

“Need help, Josh?” you asked.

“What?”

“With the…” you trailed off, instead gesturing vaguely towards your own mouth.

“There’s more?”

“Just a little,” you laughed.

He sighed and tilted his chin out towards you, “Alright.”

You gently reached out and brushed the excess powdered sugar away with your thumb. Josh’s skin was smooth beneath your fingertips and it was hard to resist the urge to just run your fingers along his bottom lip. He had such nice lips.

“Did you get it all?” he asked.

“Yeah,” you said, snapping yourself out of your daydream. “Try to be a little more careful next time.”

“No promises.”

“What’s the plan after this?” Tyler asked, joining the conversation. “Pumpkins?”

“I think that makes sense. I’d rather not stay here too long since it’s freezing out,” you answered.

“Agreed,” Josh nodded.

“Are we still going to your apartment to carve pumpkins?” Tyler asked.

“Yeah. We can order some pizza and watch horror movies too.”

“Awesome.”

“Hey, do you think I could do a backflip off this hay bale?” Josh asked, completely redirecting the conversation.

You took a second to assess your surroundings, then nodded. “Totally.”

Josh wasted no time in stuffing the rest of his donut into his mouth and climbing up a couple hay bales. After taking a moment to make sure nobody was in his way, he flipped off the hay bale and landed gracefully on the dirt. You bit back a smile at his proud smirk as he adjusted his beanie.

“You think I could do a flip?” you asked.

“Y/N,” Tyler warned.

“Sure, but only if I’m there to spot you,” Josh said.

“Of course. There’s no way I’m flipping on my own.”

“Please be careful,” Tyler said.

“I will be.”

Josh held a hand out to you and helped you up onto the taller hay bale. Flipping seemed a lot scarier now that you were up here.

“Maybe this isn’t a good idea,” you said.

“It’s ok, I’ve got you,” Josh smiled.

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

You listened carefully as Josh told you exactly what to do, although you were struggling to listen while he had one of his hands pressed firmly into your back as he spoke. Once you felt like you knew what you were doing, you gave Josh the ok.

“On my count, ok?”

“Ok.”

“Three, two, one, jump!”

You leaned into Josh’s hand and kicked your legs up over your head. His other arm caught your legs and helped them get all the way over so that you landed firmly on the ground beneath you.

“Woah, wait, I did it,” you grinned, stumbling slightly into Josh after your landing.

“Yeah, you did.” One of his arms was still wrapped around you, holding you close to his side. You were pressed up against him, still reeling from the adrenaline rush of doing a backflip… well, kind of.

“Impressive,” Tyler garbled around the donut in his mouth.

“Hey! Was that my cinnamon donut?” you asked.

Tyler’s eyes went wide as he realized what he had done. You shook your head and unwrapped yourself from Josh to instead go sit next to Tyler again.

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking,” he sighed, swallowing down the last bit.

“It’s ok, Ty, but you do owe me now.”

“I think that’s fair.”

You sat around a while longer until you and Josh finished the last of your donuts. Once they were gone and Tyler took the opportunity to show off his residual basketball skills by tossing the crumpled bag into a trash can, you headed off to the hay ride that would take you to the pumpkin patch.

“How do we do this?” Tyler asked, watching as the tractor slowly grew closer. “Do we hang on to the sides or something?”

“No,” you laughed. “You get inside and sit down on the hay.”

“More hay?” Josh sighed. “My allergies are going to start acting up.”

“You’ll be fine,” you said, giving him a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “It’ll be five minutes at most.”

“If you insist.”

“The most important rule is to not fall off, alright? Because that’s bad news for everyone involved.”

“Don’t fall off,” Tyler nodded. “I think I can manage that.”

The tractor pulled up in front of you and you quickly helped the boys up and onto a hay bale. Other families filled in the space around you. A couple teenagers were giving Tyler and Josh prolonged glances, but you hardly even noticed. You had known the boys long enough to tune things like that out now, although there were still many times where you ended up taking pictures for a fan or two.

“It smells like gas,” Tyler commented, wrinkling his nose up.

“You sure it’s not your hands?” you grinned, bumping him with your elbow.

“Oh, come on,” he laughed. “That was too easy.”

“I’m sorry! I couldn’t resist.”

Tyler shook his head. Next to you, Josh was furiously rubbing his hands - which were now a lot redder than the last time you had seen them - together.

“Put your hands in your pocket!” you said, reaching out to push them closer to his body. “They’re going to freeze.”

“I think it’s a little late for that,” he laughed, but still put them in his pocket nonetheless.

After a few more minutes, the tractor came to a stop at the edge of a field of pumpkins. There were parents all over the place, chasing their toddlers as they happily smacked pumpkins and tried to climb all over them. You were already on the lookout for a perfect pumpkin to fulfill your vision.

“Where should we start?” Tyler asked.

“I don’t know, I’m overwhelmed,” Josh answered.

“Do you guys have an idea of what kind of pumpkin you want?”

“I want a big one,” Josh said. “Like a really big one.”

“I’m just going to see what calls to me,” Tyler said. His hands were also dug deep into his pockets as he looked around. “I don’t really have anything particular in mind.”

“Ok, then let's start wandering around.”

You led the boys through the field, occasionally pausing to survey a pumpkin here or there. Josh took any opportunity he could get to show off his strength by picking up excessively large pumpkins for you to look at. None of them had caught your eye yet, however.

“Wait!” Tyler called out. You stopped walking and turned around, only to realize that he was nearly ten feet behind you.

“Did you find one?” Josh asked.

“I think so.”

You and Josh wandered back to where Tyler was bent over a pumpkin. It was a little oddly shaped with weird bumps here and there, but he seemed completely pleased with it. After taking a moment to brush some dirt off, he scooped the pumpkin into his arms.

“What do you think?”

“I think it’s the perfect pumpkin for you, Ty,” you smiled.

“Agreed.”

Tyler lugged his pumpkin around while you and Josh continued to look at the pumpkins. You eventually found one that you liked: it was nice and round, had a smooth surface, and didn’t seem to be rotting anywhere that you could see. Plus, it wasn’t too heavy which meant you would have no problem getting it back to the car.

“Alright, Josh, it’s all up to you now.”

“Oh geez,” he smiled. “That’s a lot of pressure.”

“It looks like there’s a lot of big pumpkins over there,” Tyler added. “Should we start there?”

“Good idea.”

You and Tyler followed after Josh with your pumpkins in your arms. Tyler’s pace started to slow, and for a moment you thought he was going to stop completely. It wasn’t until Josh was out of earshot and he beckoned you closer that you realized that this was deliberate.

“What?” you asked, eyebrows furrowed.

“What’s going on between you and Josh today?”

Your shoulders dropped in annoyance, “We’re not really doing this, are we?”

“You two are flirting nonstop! Did something happen that you didn’t tell me about?”

“No, nothing happened. Josh is just being friendly.”

“So I suppose that you wiping powdered donut off his lips was just friendly too?”

“Yes!” you whisper-yelled. “I would have done the same thing if you had food all over your face.”

“I can guarantee you that there would not be that much love in your eyes if you were wiping food off of my face.”

“There was no love in my eyes, what in the world are you talking about?”

“You know _exactly_ what I’m talking about.”

“There’s nothing going on. Josh and I are friends and that’s it, alright?”

“Yeah, alright,” he said sarcastically.

“Hey! What are you guys doing all the way over there?” Josh called.

“Sorry, we just needed a rest!” Tyler answered, playing it off like nothing was going on. “It’s hard carrying around pumpkins while you keep aimlessly wandering around.”

“I found a good pumpkin.”

Before you made your way over to Josh, Tyler made sure to get in one last comment.

“I think there’s more there than you’re choosing to see.”

* * *

**Josh’s POV**

I smiled as Tyler sang along to the Halloween music that Y/N had put on as background noise for our pumpkin carving escapades. They were sitting across from me, carefully cutting out the top of their pumpkin so that they could start scooping out all the insides to start carving. That’s what I was currently doing with one hand as I munched on a piece of pizza with the other. Across from me, Tyler, aside from singing, was carefully sketching out his design on the face of his pumpkin.

“Hey! Watch the wood floors,” Y/N warned as some of my pumpkin guts went flying and landed dangerously close to the edge of the trashbags we were sitting on. “And Casper. I don’t want him covered in pumpkin by the end of the night.”

“Sorry,” I mumbled around pizza, glancing at where Casper was curled up next to Y/N. “I’ll be more careful.”

“What design are you doing, Ty?”

“I’m trying to do a skeleton,” he said, holding his pumpkin out for a moment to get a better look at it. “But I’m struggling to get the design right.”

“That’s why you’re a musician and not an artist,” I joked.

“Hey! Who said music isn’t art?”

I held up my hands in defeat and the both of us erupted into laughter, resulting in me nearly dropping my pizza onto the ground. Y/N shot me a look, but they were smiling.

“What about you, Josh?”

“I’m doing an alien, which I’m sure is a shock,” I laughed.

“Oh yeah, I never could have seen that one coming.”

“We have to stay on brand,” Tyler chimed in.

“What design are you doing, Y/N?”

“I was thinking a ghost. You know, spice things up instead of just doing a normal face.”

“I like it,” I nodded.

I admired Y/N as they worked on their pumpkin. They were chewing gently on their bottom lip as they sketched out their ghost design on the front of the pumpkin. My own pumpkin was completely forgotten until Tyler kicked my leg, drawing me back into reality. He held up a pumpkin seed and pretended to throw it at Y/N. My mouth immediately curled into a grin as I grabbed a seed from inside my pumpkin. After taking a moment to line up my shot, I tossed it at Y/N and immediately went back to pretending to clean out my pumpkin.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Y/N looking between Tyler and I. It was taking all my energy to not let a smile completely overtake my face. Once they finally gave in and went back to working on their design, Tyler and I shared a look and nearly burst into laughter. Since they were distracted again, I grabbed another pumpkin seed and threw it at them. Unfortunately for me, they were ready this time and looked up before I had a chance to go back to looking innocent.

“Josh,” Y/N said, drawing out the vowel. “You’re not throwing pumpkin seeds at me, are you?”

“Of course not,” I said, but the smile that I was trying to hide was completely evident on my face.

“Liar!” they laughed, grabbing their own handful of pumpkin seeds and starting to toss them at me. I quickly reached into the bag of discarded pumpkin insides and started to throw them back at Y/N. A couple of them missed and skidded along the hardwood floors and under the couch. “You’re going to have to help me clean those up!”

“You started this!” I said as I threw another seed at them.

“Did _not_!”

We continued to throw pumpkin seeds all over the place until I finally ran out. Casper was running around, attempting to catch the pumpkin seeds in his mouth. More than once, he nearly crashed into Y/N, throwing them off their rhythm. Tyler mostly ignored the entire thing and continued to work on his own pumpkin, enjoying the peace of not having small objects hitting him in the face every few seconds, despite the fact that this war had been his idea in the first place.

“Are you two done?” he asked once the seeds finally stopped flying.

“For now,” Y/N said, shooting me a look.

“I’ll call a truce if you do.”

“Deal.”

I held out a gross pumpkin-goop covered hand. Y/N studied my hand for a moment before giving in and shaking it anyway.

“Good. Now no more pumpkin projectiles,” Tyler laughed.

“Pumpkin projectiles,” I repeated with a snort.

Things went back to being peaceful for awhile. The three of us were working away on our pumpkins and talking about potential snacks Tyler could make for the party that he was hosting tomorrow. My pumpkin design was going well, or at least, well enough that you could tell it was an alien. As for my artistic ability, that was an entirely different story.

Deciding that it had been long enough since the last time I messed with Y/N, I started to hatch a plan to bother them yet again. They had been pretty consistently skipping over songs, which involved them turning their back to me for a couple seconds while they waited for one they liked enough to let play. This was also the perfect opportunity for me to take the tool they just so happened to be using to make their ghost design.

“Don’t like this song,” Y/N huffed, setting down their tool and yet again turning their back to Tyler and I. While they were distracted, I scooped up the little scraper and tucked it beneath my leg where they wouldn’t be able to find it. Tyler took notice of this and immediately began to smile.

I watched as Y/N turned back around and reached for their tool, only to find the spot where they had left it empty. They began to look around, even going so far as to lift up their pumpkin to see if it had somehow slipped under there. Tyler and I were barely containing our laughter, which Y/N eventually took notice of.

“Alright, which one of you has it?” they asked, crossing their arms.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Tyler said.

“Oh, come on,” they huffed. “I know I’m a bit absent-minded at times but there’s no way I misplaced an entire pumpkin tool.”

“What does it look like?” I asked, pretending to be concerned.

“It’s a little, like, orange tool. This big,” they said, holding their fingers up for reference. “Wait, hold on a second. I’m still not entirely convinced that you didn’t take it.”

“Does it look like this?” I asked, grabbing it from beneath my leg.

“Yes, thank you,” they said, reaching for it. I wasn’t ready to give in so easily, so I pulled my arm back and out of Y/N’s reach. They frowned and scooted closer to me, reaching their arm as far as it would go. “Josh! Give it here,” they laughed.

“No way.”

“Josh! Come on.”

They moved forward, grabbing onto my bicep and trying to pull it towards them. I resisted, but not so much that I would accidentally punch something if they decided to let go all of a sudden.

“I thought we had a truce,” they laughed as they tugged on my arm.

“We had a truce for… what was it? Pumpkin projectiles?”

“That was it,” Tyler chimed in.

“You two are the worst.”

I tried to move the arm that was supporting my body a little further back, but I miscalculated how much weight was on it and ended up falling straight back onto the hardwood. This caused Y/N to tumble right on top of me, leaving our noses only a few inches apart. I didn’t have to look in a mirror to know that my face was the brightest red that it had been all day.

“I’ll be taking that, thank you,” Y/N grinned, taking the tool out of my grip that had now loosened significantly.

I was still in a daze when Y/N fully climbed off of me and went back to sitting behind their own pumpkin. Tyler was looking at me with raised eyebrows, but I was avoiding his gaze. There were already enough butterflies in my stomach as it was and I didn’t need Tyler’s taunting look to make them even worse.

“Are you two almost done with your pumpkins?” Y/N asked as if nothing had happened. “I want to start the movie soon.”

“What movie are we watching?” Tyler asked.

“I was thinking The Conjuring. One of the best horror movies there is. Is that ok with you two?”

“Fine with me.”

“Yeah,” I said, swallowing hard. “Me too.”

* * *

“Do you have any other blankets?” I asked, noticing there were only two sitting on the couch.

“No, those are all I’ve got. We can share, if that’s ok with you?” Y/N asked, raising their eyebrows.

“Yeah, that’s ok. I’d rather not be alone under a blanket by myself while watching a horror movie, anyway.”

“Agreed,” Y/N smiled. “And there’s no way that Tyler is going to want to share a blanket with anyone.”

“Definitely not.”

I grabbed the larger of the two blankets and got settled on one end of the couch. Y/N always liked to sit between Tyler and I, especially when watching scary movies. They always joked around, saying that they felt safe with two celebrities on either side of them.

“Coming?” I asked, holding the blanket up for them to get comfortable.

The microwave went off in the other room, drawing their attention away. “Let me grab that, then I’ll come get comfortable.”

“Sounds good.”

I stared at some of the posters that Y/N had on their walls while I waited for them to return with snacks. Most of them were for movies that they particularly liked or bands that they had gone to see, although Tyler and I didn’t have the honor of being hung in the living room. Y/N always said that it was too cheesy to have their best friends on the wall, especially when they had guests over.

My looking around was interrupted by Casper joining me on the couch and plopping himself down right next to me. He looked at me for a moment before resting his head on my thigh and blinking up on me. Unable to resist his puppy dog eyes, I happily scratched at his fluffy ears.

“Ok, snacks are here!” Y/N grinned, returning with a bowl of popcorn and a bag of candy.

“Smells delicious,” I smiled.

“Thanks, I made it in the microwave,” they giggled. “Casper, down.”

I once again held the blanket out so that they could crawl under it once Casper was out of the way. They sat down next to me, leaving a small gap between us. I tried my best to mask my disappointment, but then decided that for once I wanted to make a bit of a move.

“You know, if you get a little closer to me then we can wrap the blanket around us a little tighter. It would be warmer.”

Y/N looked at me for a moment before they began to smile. “Good idea.”

They scooted closer so that our legs were now pressed together, sending tingles all the way up to my scalp. Tyler would undoubtedly have some comment about this situation, but I couldn’t bring myself to care. Y/N was cuddled up next to me and that was more than enough to combat anything he had to say.

“Tyler!” Y/N called. “Are you almost done?”

“Yeah, I’m coming! I was just trying to get the bleeding to stop.”

“I should have gone in there and helped him,” Y/N sighed. “If he wasn’t capable of carving a pumpkin without injury, I should have known he wouldn’t be able to bandage it, either.”

Tyler appeared from the bathroom a few minutes later, now sporting a spooky bandage on his finger. He let his gaze linger on the two of us cuddled up under the blanket, but didn’t immediately make a comment. He just grabbed his own blanket and got comfortable on the other side of Y/N.

“Only two blankets, huh?” he smiled.

“I don’t have that many blankets here, Ty. I live alone.”

“I just asked a question!”

Y/N rolled their eyes and grabbed the remote from where it was sitting on the coffee table. The movie hadn’t even started and I could already feel my heart starting to beat a little harder in my chest, although that could have just been because Y/N was pressed up next to me.

“Ready?” they asked, hovering over the “Play Movie” button.

“Ready,” I nodded.

“Ready.”

Thirty minutes of the movie had passed and it was going surprisingly well. There hadn’t been anything too scary, and I was beginning to wonder if it was really going to live up to all the hype that Y/N had given it. Tyler had even fallen asleep on the opposite end of the couch and was now snoring lightly. Next to me, Y/N was watching the screen intently.

I was about to make a comment about the movie not being scary when the music ramped up and the first of what would eventually be many scary scenes played out on the screen. Without realizing it, my hand flew out and grabbed onto Y/N’s arm, gripping it tightly.

“Ow, Josh,” they laughed softly. “My arm.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, immediately loosening my grip. “I just wasn’t expecting that to happen.”

“That’s kind of the point.”

I let out a long breath of air. Maybe watching a scary movie hadn’t been such a good idea. Y/N must have noticed my distress, because they reached out and put a hand on my arm.

“Hey, it’s going to be ok. I’m right here.”

They slowly moved their hand along my arm until their fingers were laced with mine. All of the fear seemed to instantly melt away as I held their hand in my own. When I gave Y/N’s hand a light squeeze as thanks, I was met with one in return.

Maybe Tyler was onto something.


	3. Skeleton Shindig

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Alcohol use, drunken shenanigans, one really bad pun, a brief confrontation
> 
> Word Count: 7173
> 
> Authors’ Note: This chapter is pretty long, I know, but there were a lot of little details we wanted to include. Regardless, we hope you enjoy the chapter! :)

**Tyler’s POV**

I finished emptying a bag of chips into a brightly colored bowl and set it in the middle of the counter among the rest of the snacks. My entire morning had been spent making spooky DIY snacks from recipes that Y/N, Josh, and I had collected off of Pinterest. Overall, I was pretty pleased with how everything had turned out, although what everyone else would think had yet to be determined.

My phone buzzed against the counter while I was throwing the chip bag into the trash. I hummed quietly as I wandered over to it and picked it up, scrolling through what messages I had missed. Similar to the morning before, Josh and Y/N had already started some conversation between themselves.

** _Y/N: _ ** _what costumes are you dudes wearing tonight? i can’t decide :/_

** _Josh: _ ** _i haven’t decided on anything yet. i was thinking we could do a trio costume or something._

** _Y/N: _ ** _a trio costume! that’s a great idea :)_

By the time I was caught up with their messages, a plan had already formulated in my head. If I played my cards right, I could get Josh and Y/N into a couple’s costume without them even knowing. While it may not get them to admit their feelings, it definitely had the potential to give them a shove in the right direction.

** _Tyler: _ ** _hey! what if we do the skeleton onesies from a couple years ago? comfortable, easy, and it doesn’t require buying anything new_

Unbeknownst to them, I already had my own costume ready to go, completely separate from the old skeleton onesie. I tapped my foot impatiently against the wood floors, waiting for their replies. If one of them wasn’t totally on board with the idea, then I would have to do some serious convincing to make sure they ended up following through.

** _Y/N: _ ** _ooh, why didn’t i think of that? that’s perfect! you in, josh?_

** _Josh: _ ** _yeah, i’m in!_

I smiled, giving my fist a little shake of success. Now all I had to worry about was getting them to my house without either of them changing their minds or figuring out my master plan. Thankfully, that was a problem for later. Right now, my top priority was finishing all the decorations for the party.

That, and figuring out the next step of my plan.

* * *

A door towards the back of the house creaked as I was hanging some fake cobwebs over the fireplace. I immediately stopped what I was doing and listened, waiting to see if the noise would repeat itself. My doors were always locked at all hours of the day and as far as I knew, there shouldn’t be anyone at my house today until the party started. Deciding that it had probably been a sound effect from the music I had playing, I brushed it off and went back to decorating.

There was another sound a short time later, although this time it sounded more like my floors creaking than it did a door opening. Now a bit more paranoid than I was before, I set my decorations down on the mantle and walked into the kitchen where my phone was sitting. While there was still a chance it could be the music playing over the speaker system, something about the proximity of the sound gave me a feeling that it wasn’t. Once the music was off, I slowly crept towards the hall closet where I kept a baseball bat for situations like this.

With the bat in my hands, and my nerves somewhat calmed now that I had something to protect myself, I started to creep towards the source of the noise. I wanted to believe that I had worked myself up over nothing because of it being the day before Halloween and all, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that someone, or some_thing_, was in my house.

Just as I was about to round the corner in the hallway, someone jumped out from behind the wall and scared me. I registered the bright red hair just in time to stop the bat mid-swing and avoid knocking Josh out cold.

“What the hell?” I said, bringing a hand to my chest. “How did you get in here?”

“I used my spare key to get in the back door and scare you,” Josh grinned. “Did it work?”

“Work? Josh, I nearly knocked you out cold.”

“I’ll take that as a yes, then.”

He gave me a pat on the shoulder as he walked down the hall. I took another moment to compose myself before joining him.

“Where should I put my bag? The guest room?” he called from the kitchen.

“Yeah, that’s fine.”

After some discussion, we decided that Y/N and Josh should spend the night at my place so that we could get an early start on our ghost hunting trip tomorrow. It was the grand finale of what Y/N had deemed our “Spooky Extravaganza” in order to celebrate Halloween this year. This was also the reason I had been talked into throwing a Halloween party.

While Josh put his things away, I wandered back into the living room to finish putting up decorations. There were only a few final touches and some food that needed to be laid out before the house was ready for tonight.

“Where’s your costume?” Josh asked as he wandered back into the living room.

My eyes went wide, but thankfully my back was to Josh so he wasn’t able to see my surprise. I quickly thought of a lie that I hoped would be believable.

“I haven’t put it on yet. I, uh, didn’t want it to get sweaty while I was decorating.”

“You’ve been hard at work, huh?” he laughed, a sign he had bought the lie.

“Yeah. Decorating is tough.”

“Do you need any help?”

I stepped down from the fireplace and glanced around the room, looking for anything that seemed out of place or under-decorated. If I was being honest, I was pretty impressed with the job that I had done on my own.

“I think I just have to get some more food ready, if you want to come help with that.”

“Sure.”

“How have you been since we last saw each other?” I asked as I began to grab food from the fridge.

“I’ve been ok. Mostly just sleeping, you know?”

“You mean you didn’t stay up until three talking to Y/N again?”

“No, not last night. They were tired and I wanted to let them sleep,” he said, barely containing a shy smile.

“Shocking.”

“Hey, not all of us fell asleep ten minutes into the movie last night.”

“I was exhausted! Being around two people who are clearly in love with one another but won’t admit it all day is tiring.”

“Shut up. We are _not _in love with one another.”

“Sure, Josh.”

“Although…” he trailed off.

I looked up from the platter that I was working on and raised my eyebrows at him. “Although?”

He reached up and rubbed at his neck, “Well, last night, when we were watching the movie… I got scared at one point and Y/N kind of… grabbed my hand, I guess? And held it for the rest of the movie.”

I took the dish towel that I had thrown over my shoulder and dramatically tossed it down on to the counter before resting my hands against its edge.

“Tell me again why you don’t think they feel the same?” I said.

“It didn’t mean anything,” he shrugged. “I don’t even know why I brought it up. They were just trying to comfort me because they know I don’t like scary movies. Y/N is way out of my league, anyway. It’s not going to happen.”

“Josh. Did you hear what you said to me? About them holding your hand?”

“Yes, and I told you that they were just being comforting.”

I sighed and pushed a hand through my hair. Though I was trying to hide my exasperation, I could tell that Josh knew I was frustrated with him.

“Listen, we have the party tonight and ghost hunting tomorrow. There’s going to be plenty of opportunities for you to hint at your feelings for Y/N. I’m not saying you have to admit anything, but can you at least _try_ to be a little flirty?”

He shrugged, “I don’t know how.”

“It’s easy! Look, just watch me do it.”

Josh watched in confusion as I wandered over to the freezer. Inside were a number of rubber gloves that I filled with water the night before and left in there to freeze so that I could use them in punch at the party. I grabbed one of them and carried it back over to Josh.

“See, right here we have Y/N’s hand,” I said, gesturing to the glove. “Now, stay with me, Josh, say you two are walking, ok?”

Josh answered with a hesitant, “Ok.”

I started to mimic walking, making sure to swing the glove back and forth for added effect. “Ok, so you’re at the party or looking out for ghosts. All you need to do is turn your body a little and let your fingers gently brush against theirs.” I demonstrated. “Now this is the important part. If they turn their hand to catch yours when it swings back, then you know you’re in. If they don’t, then you pretend it was an accident and move on.”

“And how do you know this is going to work?”

I sighed as I started to peel the glove away so I could properly add it to the punch, “I don’t, but you’re never going to know if you don’t take a chance. Whether you think Y/N shares your feelings or not, you can’t deny that the two of you have a deep bond. I don’t want to see you pass that up because you’re scared, alright?”

Josh rubbed at the side of his face. “You’re right. I’m trying to make a move, I really am. I just get so nervous around them. Like, when they smile? And the whole room just lights up? It gives me butterflies every time and then I forget what I was trying to say because everything else fades out and I can’t do anything but smile like an idiot.”

“And that’s exactly why you need to pursue this. I’ve never seen you this in love with somebody. Y/N is special, Josh. Don’t lose that.”

“I know,” he said, snapping himself out of his lovesick daze. “Trust me, I know. Speaking of Y/N, when are they getting here?”

I checked the time on the stove. “Anytime now, although they did text and say traffic was worse than usual.”

“More time for me to amp myself up, I guess.”

“Exactly,” I grinned.

* * *

**Your POV**

You admired Tyler’s skeleton pumpkin as you walked up to his front door. Despite the mishap with Tyler cutting his finger, he still managed to end up with a decent looking pumpkin, It looked nice among the other decorations that he had taken the time to hang up outside his house, most of which were other skeletons.

You adjusted your backpack a little before knocking on the door. Josh opened it almost immediately, a bright smile on his face. You returned it as you stepped inside the house and kicked your shoes off by the door.

“Hey,” Josh smiled.

“Hi, how’s it going?”

“Great. I like your costume, by the way.”

“Thanks, I like yours too,” you giggled.

“You two wasted no time getting friendly,” Tyler said, arms crossed as he slowly wandered in your direction.

“I’d get friendly with you too if you actually had your costume on,” you retorted.

“I didn’t want to get it sweaty while I was decorating! I’ll put it on when people start getting here.”

“It looks amazing in here, by the way.” You took a moment to look around at all the decorations. “You really outdid yourself.”

“Thanks. I know you were really excited about this Halloween party, so I wanted to make sure it lived up to your spooky standards.”

“You definitely met them.”

“When is everyone else getting here?” Josh asked.

“Fifteen minutes or so. At least, that’s when they’re supposed to show up.”

“Are you going to get changed, Ty?” you chimed in.

“I will! I will.”

“We need to all match!”

You could have sworn you saw a smirk pass over Tyler’s face, but you decided to brush it off. He probably just had some crazy plan to scare everyone at the party later which, while concerning, was not something that you needed to immediately deal with.

“Also, where should I put my stuff?” you asked.

“The guest room is fine.”

“Ok.”

While the boys wandered off to the kitchen, you went down the hall to drop your belongings in the guest bedroom. You had always liked Tyler’s house; something about it being near the woods on the outskirts of Columbus had always comforted you and made it feel like a second home to you. Maybe it was the fact that the boys were always around when you were at Tyler’s too.

The boys were whispering hurriedly when you walked into the kitchen, but quickly stopped once they took notice of your presence. You simply smiled and took a seat in one of the stools next to Josh.

“This food looks really cool, Ty. You nailed the DIYs,” you said, admiring some oreo spiders he had made.

“Thanks. You should have seen me when I was working this morning,” he laughed. “The kitchen was a complete disaster of half-finished projects for a while.”

“I can only imagine.”

“Oh, I should probably go get dressed before people start showing up. Feel free to play darts or something while you wait. Just make sure not to get covered in paint.”

Tyler grinned at the two of you before disappearing down the hall. Josh was quiet for a moment before he turned to you. “Darts?”

“Sure.”

You got up and followed Josh into the dining room where Tyler had set up a game of what he and Josh had deemed “Spooky Darts”. A selection of water balloons were currently pinned to the wall, each full of red paint. Behind them was white paper, so that when the balloons popped, it would end up looking like blood splatter. You still remembered the proud look on the boys’ faces when they came up with it.

“You want to throw first?” Josh asked, holding a dart out to you.

“You know I’m not good at darts,” you laughed. “But I can try.”

“I can always help you, if you need it.”

You swallowed hard, unsure if you should take Josh up on the offer. Maybe you could really mess up this throw so you had an excuse to ask him for help the next time around. Yeah, that was definitely an idea you could get behind.

You tossed the dart at the makeshift dartboard, but ended up missing and nearly hitting the wall beside it. Your hand flew to your mouth to cover a gasp, but it quickly turned to laughter as you turned and saw the look on Josh’s face. He was smiling widely as he twirled his own dart in his fingers.

“This doesn’t even feel fair,” he laughed.

“I tried!”

“Here, let the professional show you how it’s done.”

You watched with crossed arms as Josh lined up a shot and tossed a dart at the wall, easily hitting one of the balloons and popping it. He turned to you with a proud smirk, making you shake your head.

“Alright, Mr. Professional, why don’t you help me out then?”

“Gladly.”

Josh wasted no time in stepping closer to you and wrapping his hand over yours, helping you hold the dart in what he insisted was the “correct” position. You tried to pay more attention than you had when he was explaining backflips yesterday, although a game of darts definitely had a lot less risk involved. Before you knew it, he was helping you toss a dart directly into a balloon at the other end of the room.

“See? That easy.”

“I guess you just teach me something new every day,” you smiled.

Josh bit down on his lip and turned away from you, probably in some attempt to hide the blush on his cheeks. You wanted to tease him about it, but decided that was a bad idea when there was a good chance you looked just as flustered as him. Instead, you wandered towards the balloons to pick up your darts. Unfortunately for you, Josh had other plans.

Just as you had collected your second dart, a balloon popped near your head and splattered paint in your direction. You had just enough time to register what was happening and jump back to avoid getting paint over the majority of your clothes, but you still felt a few splatters cover your cheeks.

“Josh!” you squealed, but it quickly turned to laughter. “What were you thinking?”

“I wasn’t!” he joined your laughter. “I’m so sorry, Y/N.”

“You’re going to pay for that!”

Without a moment of hesitation, you swiped your finger through a particularly large glob of paint and started to run after Josh. He tried his best to dodge you, but, not wanting to ruin Tyler’s carefully placed decorations, ended up backed into a corner. With a satisfied smile, you reached up and drew a line of red paint right down Josh’s nose.

“Ok, I think that’s deserved,” he laughed.

You hadn’t initially realized you were pressed up against him until he started to laugh and you felt the movement of his chest against your own. Every point of contact was immediately on fire and you quickly took a step back, not wanting to make things uncomfortable. Before either of you had a chance to say anything, Tyler finally emerged from his bedroom, wearing something that definitely _wasn’t_ the skeleton onesie the three of you had agreed on.

“What do you think of my costume?” he… well, you weren’t entirely sure _what_ expression he was making. He currently had a sheet thrown over his head, complete with uneven cut out eye holes and drawn on fangs. Around his neck was a classic vampire cape that flowed out behind him.

“Are you a… vampire ghost?” you asked.

“Exactly. I couldn’t decide which one I wanted to be, so I figured why not both?”

“Isn’t that, you know, not possible?” Josh added. “Since they’re both undead?”

Tyler sighed dramatically, “Because every other Halloween costume is _so_ realistic.”

“Besides, what happened to our trio costume?” you frowned.

“Yeah, now it just looks like Y/N and I did a couple’s costume.”

A lightbulb immediately went off in your head. There had never been a trio costume in the first place.

“I wanted to stand out because I’m the host! Not to mention that the two of you make such a cute couple, I didn’t want to intrude on that.” You didn’t have to see Tyler’s face to know that there was a huge smirk plastered on it. “Also what did I say about you two getting dirty? You both have red paint all over your faces.”

“Yeah, I’m going to go get cleaned up,” you sighed.

You brushed past Tyler, making sure to give his shoulder a little bump, as you made your way to the bathroom. As soon as the door was shut behind you, you leaned against it and took a deep breath. Everything was fine, it was just a matching costume, not a confession of your feelings. Tyler had put you and Josh into far more awkward situations before and it had never been an issue.

Maybe it was holding Josh’s hand yesterday that was adding a whole new layer to the energy between you and Josh today.

With a sigh, you pushed the thoughts from your mind and bent down over the sink to carefully scrub the red paint away. Your focus tonight was going to be on the party, that was it. Between tour and your generally busy schedule, it wasn’t often that you got to have nights like tonight where everyone was together and you definitely weren’t about to let Tyler put a damper on that. 

Josh had already cleaned up by the time that you finally emerged from the bathroom. The boys were once again in the kitchen, standing around the snacks but doing their best not to eat any before the rest of the guests arrived.

“Do you think it would be too cheesy to play some of our music at the party?” Tyler asked.

“Maybe a little, although I did see that Heathens got added to some Halloween playlists,” Josh answered.

“I think you could get away with two of your own songs, but not much more than that.”

“Fair enough.”

Your conversation was interrupted by a knock at the door. The three of you turned in its direction, hoping to catch a glimpse of who the first to arrive was, until Tyler finally skipped off to answer it. A few moments later, Mark and Brad were standing in the entryway, proudly displaying their costumes. Or at least, Mark was.

“Mario and Luigi, I like it,” Josh laughed.

“No, no, no, you’re mistaken,” Mark grinned. “I’m _Mark_io.”

“Do you have a clever pun for your name, Brad?” you asked once you finally caught your breath after laughing.

“No,” he deadpanned.

“Alright,” you nodded.

“We tried Bradigi, but it didn’t have quite the ring to it that we were going for.”

“_You_ were going for.”

“Alright, let’s get this party started,” Tyler grinned.

* * *

The party was in full swing now. Tyler’s living room was full of your friends in a variety of spooky costumes, most of whom were also tipsy. You were currently on the couch, nursing your own drink and watching the partygoers try to hold conversations with their drunk friends as they munched on Tyler’s creative snacks.

Josh collapsed down onto the couch next to you without warning, nearly making you spill your drink down the front of your onesie. You held back an insult, knowing he didn’t do it on purpose, and instead braced yourself to listen to whatever message he had brought you this time.

“Some people are playing Uno, if you want to join,” he said, letting a silly smile grace his lips. “It’s a drinking game, but you can drink whatever you want. Doesn’t have to have alcohol in it.”

“Are you going to play?”

“Mmmhmm. And I want you to come sit next to me.” He leaned into you slightly as he spoke, making heat rise to your cheeks.

“Ok, I’ll play a round of Uno.”

You stood up and helped Josh follow after you. He grabbed two more drinks for the two of you as you passed through the kitchen, and even went so far as to grab an entire handful of spider Oreos. You had to hold back a giggle when he dramatically winked as he did so, as if he had somehow pulled off the greatest heist of the century.

“Come on, Josh.”

Tyler, Mark, Brad, and a couple other people were already sitting around the floor, preparing their own drinks for the start of the game. You sat in the empty space next to Tyler and Josh wasted no time in plopping down next to you and sitting close enough that his knee was practically on top of yours. Tyler shot you a look because of this, but you simply shook your head and picked up the cards that were being dealt to you.

“What are the rules?” Mark asked.

Tyler went over the rules of Uno: The Drinking Game - another of his and Josh’s creations - while everyone sorted through their cards. You were trying to pay attention, but Josh kept leaning over and bumping your arm. When you would ask him what he wanted, he would just respond by saying he didn’t want you to forget that he was sitting next to you; something about him being tough competition.

“How many Red Bulls have you had tonight?” you asked as you noticed Tyler taking a long sip out of a familiar blue and silver can. The “ghost” part of his outfit had long since been discarded - he said it had been too difficult to eat with it on - for the cape and a pair of plastic vampire teeth instead. This also, naturally, included Tyler doing his best vampire hisses at people when they passed.

“Four. Wait, no, five? I’ve lost track.”

“Are you going to be able to sleep tonight?”

“Do I ever sleep?” he laughed.

“Fair enough.”

You rearranged the cards in your hand so that it would be easier for you to play the game. Just as it was about to start, Josh nudged your arm yet again, although this time he had a gift.

“For good luck,” he whispered with a dorky grin as he tried, and failed, to slyly pass you an Oreo.

“Thanks,” you said, pressing your lips together to avoid laughing too loudly. When you didn’t immediately eat the Oreo, he raised his eyebrows and pressed your hand closer to your mouth.

“Alright, Brad, you start.”

The game ended up going pretty well, although Josh was now considerably more drunk than he had been at the start, if that was even possible. He was now leaning on you completely shamelessly and reminding you how cool you were at every opportunity. You would be lying if you said you weren’t enjoying it.

“Where are you going?” Josh whined as you started to stand up. The game had long since ended, but your group had decided to stay sitting and swap stories over drinks.

“I was just going to get some water.”

“I’ll go with you.”

This, of course, required you to help Josh stand back up. As soon as he was on his feet, he wrapped an arm around you - insisting that it was to help him balance - and walked with you into the kitchen. Even when you reached up to grab a cup, he kept one arm firmly around your waist.

“Wait, no way!” A familiar voice cut through the noise just to your right. “I had no idea you guys were dating.”

You sighed and turned to face the figure, playing nervously with the cup in your hands. “We’re not.”

Her eyebrows furrowed, “You’re not? So… that’s not a couple’s costume?”

“It’s not,” you said, forcing a smile and making a mental note to chew Tyler out later. “And the only reason he’s hanging on to me is because he’s drunk. He has a habit of hanging onto people when he’s drunk.”

“Yeah, I remember.”

“Yeah.”

You were glad when she finally walked off, and also when Josh decided to keep his mouth shut. Once you had taken a second to calm your breathing back down, you refilled your water and walked back into the other room. Tyler helped Josh sit back down on the ground, though he did have a mind of his own when it came to where he was sitting. Rather than sitting next to Tyler, which had been Tyler’s intention, Josh ended up cross legged across from you.

“Hi, Josh,” you smiled.

“Hi, Y/N,” he said, giving you one of his famous crinkly-eyed smiles. His nose scrunched a little too, making you nearly melt on the spot.

“How are you feeling?”

“Wonderful. In fact, I feel almost as good as you look.”

You ignored the stares of everyone else sitting in your makeshift circle and kept your eyes on Josh. Sure, he could be a bit of a flirt when he got tipsy, but you had never experienced anything quite like this.

“Thank you.”

“Mmmhmm.” He paused for a moment and then craned his neck so he could look at Tyler. “Hey, Tyler.”

“Hey, Josh.”

“Hey, hey, did you know that your voice is really nice? I like when you sing.”

A shy smile passed over Tyler’s face and he mumbled a quiet thanks. Josh, obviously pleased with this reaction, then turned back to you.

“I don’t have a nice voice,” he shook his head while maintaining very serious eye contact with you. “I just play the drums and then I get calluses all over my hands. Look at this.”

He held a hand right up to your face. You gently grabbed his wrist and pushed it away from you so that you could actually see what he was trying to show you. His eyebrows knit together in confusion for a moment before relaxing again.

“You don’t have that many calluses, Josh. Your hands are very nice.”

“You think my hands are nice?”

You held back a laugh, afraid it might upset him. “Yes, very nice.”

“But look at your hands.”

He somehow managed to wriggle his one hand away from your grip and grabbed yours. You ignored Tyler’s stares as Josh very delicately picked up your hands and rested them on top of his fingers so that he could look at them. His thumbs ran gently over the backs of your palms, just barely ghosting against your skin.

“See? You don’t have any calluses. And your hands are so much smaller than mine. Look.”

Once again, your hands were being pulled in all different directions by Josh, this time to press your hands together so that he could see how much bigger his hands were. He very carefully lined up the bottoms of your palms for the most accurate depiction.

“My fingers are so much longer than yours!” he grinned, obviously pleased with himself. “Can you feel all the calluses on my hand?”

“Yes, I can.”

“What about now?”

You tried not to jump as Josh slid his fingers between yours and closed his hand. Slowly, yours did the same until you were essentially showing off your hand holding to the entire group. Josh, of course, didn’t mind, but you could practically feel every set of eyes that was watching you.

“I still feel them.”

Josh sighed dramatically and let your hands fall, though he kept your fingers interlaced. “That’s not fair. I don’t want you to feel my calluses when we hold hands, that’s embarrassing!”

“It’s not a big deal, Josh.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Hey, you know who has really small hands?” he smiled, changing the subject in an instant. He answered his own question before you had a chance to. “Tyler.”

“Hmm?” Tyler asked.

“Bro, let me see your hands.”

Tyler reluctantly held his hands out and Josh finally scooted away from you to investigate. He did the same thing he had with you where he delicately held Tyler’s hands in front of his face, but you took notice of the fact that he wasn’t gently running his thumbs over the back of Tyler’s palm. That made you smile.

“Your hands are so small and soft,” Josh said. “I wish my hands were small and soft.”

“Thanks, I think?”

The room went quiet as the song that had been playing came to an end. You immediately recognized the beginning of the next one that played, considering you had heard it at countless concerts. Tyler was already looking at you when you went to shoot him a look.

“You really did it,” you laughed.

He shrugged, “Just the one. I couldn’t resist.”

“Tyler!” Josh gasped, squeezing his friend’s hands a little tighter as he looked up to meet his eyes. “This is _our_ song!”

Josh dropped Tyler’s hands in an instant and began to air drum in time with the song, much to the amusement of everyone around him. You sighed and took a long sip of what was left of your drink.

It was going to be a long night.

* * *

People finally started to leave around one in the morning. Josh was still drunk and following you around like a lost puppy, though he had sobered up somewhat. You were just glad that he hadn’t ended up puking in the middle of the living room, which had been a concern at one point.

“Ok, I think it’s time for us to head out,” Mark said, clapping his hands together. “Brad, you ready?”

“Yeah, I’m ready.”

“Wait!” Josh called, pulling his head up from where it had previously been resting on your shoulder. “I have to say goodbye.”

“We all do,” you laughed.

You watched as Josh walked up to Mark and firmly placed his hands on either side of his face.

“Mark, I love you so much,” he said. “Thank you so much for taking awesome pic- videos of our concerts.”

“It’s no problem, bud,” Mark smiled, giving Josh a firm clap on the shoulder.

“And Brad!” Josh continued, doing the same to him as he had done to Mark. “Wow, your beard is so nice. I love you, man.”

Brad nodded, his lips firmly pressed together. “Sounds about right.”

Once they were out the door, it was finally just you, Tyler, and Josh left. You were exhausted, but the house was a mess and you didn’t want to leave Tyler to clean up everything by himself, especially since you knew Josh wouldn’t be any help.

“Where do you want to start?” you asked, turning to Tyler.

“I say we start in the living room and work from there.”

“Good plan.”

* * *

**Josh’s POV**

“Y/N!” I called.

“What?” they answered from the other room.

“Will you come sit on the couch with me?”

I listened as their footsteps grew steadily closer. When they appeared around the corner, my face immediately grew into a smile.

“I’ll come sit with you once Tyler and I are done cleaning. If you want it to go faster, then you can help.”

“I am helping! By eating these chips,” I grinned, holding up the bag for added effect.

Y/N shot me a look before they turned and walked back into the other room. I could hear them and Tyler quietly talking, but I couldn’t make out anything they were saying. The crunching of chips echoing in my head was doing nothing to help that, either.

The bag of chips was nearly gone by the time Y/N finally joined me on the couch. I immediately laid down and rested my head in their lap, eager to be close to them. Normally I would be too scared to even graze their hand on accident, but something about the alcohol in my system was giving me all the confidence I needed.

“Is this ok?” I mumbled.

“Yeah, you’re fine.”

“Good, because I didn’t want to move.”

Y/N laughed and rested a hand on my head. They slowly started to brush their hands through my hair, nearly lulling me into a sleep. When Tyler started to talk too, I knew there was no way that I would be staying awake for more than a few more minutes.

I floated in and out of sleep until Tyler finally shook me awake for good and told me I should move to the guest room. When I started to protest, he shot me a look and nodded in the direction of the hallway.

“Are you going to be ok getting dressed?” Tyler asked. He was leaned in the doorway while I stumbled my way towards the bed.

“I’ll be fine,” I mumbled. “Where’s Y/N?”

“Josh, I know you…” he turned and looked over his shoulder, “...love them, but you don’t need to be with them at every waking moment.”

“Yes, I do!”

“I’ll be right back. You get into pajamas.”

Tyler shut the door and walked off before I had a chance to say anything else. While I waited for him to return, I slowly shuffled around the room to grab my pajamas and get changed into them. I felt a lot more comfortable once I was in sweatpants and a t-shirt instead of my skeleton onesie.

I was about to call out for Tyler when I heard him talking to Y/N just outside the door. Letting my curiosity get the best of me, I slowly crept towards the door and put my ear up against it.

“Where did you want to sleep tonight? I can take the couch, if you want me to. Tomorrow is going to be a long night and I know you already don’t sleep well away from home,” Tyler said.

“Are you sure? I really don’t mind taking the-”

I suddenly pulled the door open, making both Tyler and Y/N jump. They watched me with raised eyebrows while I took a moment to process what I had just done.

“They can sleep in here with me.”

“Josh,” Tyler sighed.

“I need them to protect me! Tomorrow is Halloween which means there will be scary creatures out.”

Tyler looked to Y/N, who simply shrugged. “I mean, it eliminates the problem of who has to sleep on the couch.”

“If you’re cool with it, then I won’t stop you.”

“I’m sure it will be fine,” Y/N smiled.

“Alright, I’ll see you in the morning then.”

“Goodnight, Ty.”

“Goodnight!” I chimed in.

“Good luck with him,” Tyler laughed.

“Thanks, I’ll need it.”

I smiled as Y/N walked into the room with me and Tyler walked off down the hall. While Y/N dug around in their bag for pajamas, I collapsed back down onto the bed. It creaked a little from the sudden weight.

“Damn,” Y/N muttered.

“What?”

“I’ll be right back.”

I watched as Y/N quickly opened the door and disappeared from the room, hopefully not to tell Tyler that they wanted to sleep on the couch, after all. The mere thought of it was upsetting.

When Y/N returned, they were wearing an oversized t-shirt over a pair of sweatpants, much like me, although I was sure that it wasn’t their shirt. They tossed their skeleton onesie down onto their stuff and started to scroll through their phone.

“Whose shirt is that?” I asked.

“Tyler’s?” they said, looking up at me. “Why?”

“Why are you wearing Tyler’s shirt?”

“Because I forgot pajamas and didn’t want to sleep in the onesie.”

“Why don’t you wear _my_ shirt?” I frowned.

They finally turned off their phone and slipped it into the pocket of their sweatpants. “Because you don’t have any extras here and Tyler does. Is somebody _jealous_?”

“No,” I huffed, crossing my arms tightly over my chest. “I just think you would look better in my shirt.”

“Oh really?”

“Yeah. Here, take it.”

Y/N tried to stop me, but it was too late. My shirt was off and sitting in a small heap next to the bed. When they raised their eyebrows at me, I simply gave them my sweetest smile.

“Now you can wear it.”

“I’m not going to wear your shirt, Josh.”

“Why not?” I whined. “I took it off just for you.”

I could have sworn that I saw a hint of a smile cross Y/N’s face, but they were too far and my vision wasn’t quite clear enough for me to be able to tell.

“I’m already in Tyler’s shirt and I’m not going to take it off just to put yours on.”

“Do you like him better or something?”

“No, I-”

“Are you in love with Tyler?”

“I’m not in love with Tyler,” they sighed. “He’s my best friend and nothing more.”

Y/N slowly wandered over and took a seat next to where I was laying on the bed. They were close enough that I could feel the body heat radiating from them, but not close enough that I could move to touch them without making my intentions obvious.

“I’m in love with someone.”

“Who?” they asked softly.

“I can’t tell you. It’s a secret.”

“You’re such a tease,” Y/N laughed, shoving at my leg. “I really thought you were drunk enough to tell me your secrets.”

“I’ll never tell you my secrets,” I grinned.

“I’ll get them out of you someday. Now, are you ready to go to bed?”

I stuck my bottom lip out, “I want to talk to you more.”

“We can talk tomorrow.”

“Please, Y/N?”

“I’m really tired after tonight. Can you please not make this difficult?”

“Ok.”

I got under the covers while Y/N got up and flipped the overhead light off. There was still a lamp sitting on the bedside table, casting weird shadows onto the walls, especially when Y/N walked around the bed.

“Are you comfortable, Josh?”

“Yep.”

“You don’t feel like you’re going to puke, do you?”

“Nope.”

“Ok, then I’m going to turn the light off.”

The room looked different in the dark, and my drunk state wasn’t doing anything to help the weird patterns that were dancing on the walls. I pulled the blanket up a little closer to my neck, hoping it would help me feel a little more secure. Just as I was about to shut my eyes, an idea popped into my head.

“Y/N?” I whispered.

“What?”

“I’m cold.”

“That’s probably because you threw your shirt on the ground. I’m the perfect temperature.”

I sighed. This wasn’t going as planned.

“Will you cuddle with me?”

“Josh, I’m not going to cuddle with you. Just put your shirt back on.”

“I don’t want to. I like sleeping shirtless.”

“Then get another blanket and stop complaining.”

“No, Y/N,” I whined.

“Joshua Dun, drunk or not, it is not my job to baby you.”

“Please, I just want to cuddle with you. It’s cold and I don’t like the dark.”

“Well if you would actually close your eyes and stop talking, you might fall asleep so you don’t have to deal with it anymore.”

“I’m not going to be able to fall asleep, I’m too paranoid.”

Y/N was quiet for a moment. At first I thought they had finally given up and decided to ignore me, but then they shifted closer to me, bringing their pillow along with them.

“Where do you want me?”

“Could you just like… wrap around me, maybe?”

Y/N hesitantly slid one of their arms across my chest. Their hand went up to rest on my shoulder, sending familiar tingles down the length of my arm. I used one of my arms to wrap around them and rest on their hip, holding them close to me. They laid their head just above my collarbone, making it so that I could feel the steadiness of their breath against my skin. I was suddenly very glad I had decided to take my shirt off earlier, even if it had been for a dumb reason.

“Is this helping?” they asked.

“Yeah. Are you comfortable?”

“Mmmhmm. Are you?”

“I’ve never been more comfortable in my life.”

“Me too.”

“Goodnight, Y/N.”

“Goodnight, Josh.”

I was asleep within minutes.


	4. Apparition Antics

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Paranormal activity, angst
> 
> Word Count: 10346
> 
> Authors' Note: Another really long chapter! Hopefully you enjoy it! :) And Happy Halloween!!

**Tyler’s POV**

My alarm played softly from my bedside table, lulling me out of the light sleep that I had been in. Sunlight was just beginning to filter through the curtains, throwing bits of light on the covers around my feet. Suppressing a groan, I rolled over and grabbed my phone from the bedside table. My shoulders dropped in relief when the alarm finally came to a stop.

I dropped my phone down onto the covers, not yet wanting to get out of bed and start the morning. Eight in the morning was much earlier than I was used to waking up, and every part of my body was screaming to stay under my warm covers and go back to bed. My eyes had just started to flutter close when I snapped them open again and pushed myself to a sitting position. There was a strict schedule that we had to follow today, and I wasn’t about to let it be ruined because I wanted to stay in bed just a little longer.

My brain slowly started to wake up as I went through the motions of my morning routine. By the time that I finished brushing my teeth, the temptation to get back in bed had finally subsided. After one last glance in the mirror, I flipped off the light and shuffled my way down the hall to wake up Josh and Y/N.

I stopped outside the door and held my breath, listening carefully for any quiet conversations that I had the potential of interrupting. The only thing I could hear was Josh snoring, so I slowly pushed open the door and peeked my head inside.

My jaw dropped the second that my eyes landed on the two of them. Y/N was pressed up against Josh with their head buried in the crook of his neck, their limbs all tangled up together. They looked so content curled up next to one another that there was no way I could wake them up right now. It would have to wait until after breakfast was ready.

I quietly slipped back out of the room and shut the door behind me, my head still reeling from what I had just seen. A million questions were running through my mind as I walked into the kitchen, but I knew I would have to wait for one of them to wake up before I got any answers. For the time being, all I could do was focus on making pancakes.

The hardwood floors of the kitchen were cold under my feet as I stood over the counter, mixing up pancake batter. It was a recipe Y/N had taught me, way back when we had just become friends and they still lived in Cleveland. They had stayed over one night after a show and the next morning we made pancakes together and had our first real bonding experience. I had been using the recipe ever since, though it was mostly reserved for special occasions like today.

The pan was just beginning to heat up when a door in the hallway creaked. I paused and listened, trying to determine if it was someone waking up or someone breaking into the house. When Josh shuffled into the kitchen a few minutes later with hair sticking out at all angles and a shirt that hadn’t been on him ten minutes ago, I relaxed and went back to doing what I previously had been.

“Good morning,” I smiled, pouring the first of many pancakes into the pan.

“Happy Halloween,” he said as he took a seat in one of the stools.

“How are you feeling this morning?”

“Better than I thought I would,” he laughed.

“Did you sleep well last night?” I was barely able to contain my knowing smile.

“Yeah, I did, actually.”

There was a pause in conversation as I checked the underside of the pancake. Josh was idly drumming his fingers on the counter as I did so.

“Ok, I need to ask,” I finally said, unable to contain my curiosity any longer. “What _happened_ last night?”

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t play dumb, Josh. I saw you and Y/N this morning all cuddled up in bed.”

“You did?” His expression was shocked at first, but it was quickly overtaken by a shy smile.

“Yeah. I was coming to wake you two up, but you looked so peaceful cuddled up that I decided to wait.”

Josh’s smile grew even more. “I was tempted to stay in bed, just so I could snuggle with them a little longer, but I heard you out here making breakfast and wanted to see if you needed any help.”

“Did you two fall asleep like that?”

“I think so. My memory is a little fuzzy, but I vaguely remember demanding that Y/N cuddle with me.”

“Charming,” I laughed as I flipped a pancake.

“I like to cuddle when I’m drunk! And I was cold.”

“You know I keep spare blankets in the closet in there, right?”

“Yeah, but, you know…”

“Yeah, yeah,” I waved my hand towards him. “Cuddling with the person you like is much more appealing, I get it.”

“Mmmhmm…”

“Did any feelings get confessed last night?” I asked as I plopped the finished pancake onto a plate.

“No. I didn’t want to do it while I was drunk. That’s not very romantic.”

“But you are going to finally tell Y/N how you feel?”

“Well, I don’t know. I was thinking maybe-”

The door in the hallway creaked and Josh’s mouth immediately snapped closed. His ears were already becoming a bright shade of red, despite the fact that Y/N hadn’t even entered the room yet.

“Good morning,” Y/N smiled as they walked into the room, doing a little spin as they did so.

“Someone is in a good mood this morning,” I laughed.

“I slept well last night and today is Halloween, how could I be in a bad mood?”

I turned and wiggled my eyebrows at Josh, who only rolled his eyes and cast them down towards the counter. Y/N was too busy fiddling with a string on their shirt to notice the exchange.

“Alright, now that you two are awake, we have to discuss the plan for today.”

“Let’s hear it, Ty.”

“So this place,” I started, unable to keep the giddy grin off my face. Y/N had left all the ghost hunting planning up to me, which meant they and Josh had no idea what we were in for. “It’s an old high school that was shut down in the 60s after a number of mysterious occurrences. There’s all sorts of reports of athletes getting hurt, teachers seeing and hearing unexplainable things after hours, and even furniture and posters being moved around overnight. For awhile people thought it was just students messing around and a number of arrests were made, but it didn’t stop it from happening.”

“Can I have a pancake?” Y/N asked.

“Y/N!” I sighed as I flipped the pancake that was cooking. “I’m in the middle of my spooky story. But yes, you can have a pancake, You too, Josh.”

I allowed them each a moment to grab their pancakes and cover them in various toppings before I continued my story.

“Continuing on, mysterious sightings are still being reported in and around the building. One of the most common reports is seeing a shadowy figure with glowing eyes standing in the windows during sunset. Police have investigated the building on numerous occasions, but nothing and nobody is ever found. It’s supposed to be one of the most haunted places in Ohio.”

“And we’re going there?” Josh asked before stuffing his face with pancake.

“Yes.”

“I’m excited,” Y/N smiled. “I’ve always wanted to find a ghost.”

“I’m sure we’re going to see _something_ scary tonight, ghost or not,” I answered. “And you two better take this seriously. I don’t want you messing around like you usually do.”

“You mean Y/N and I can’t sing for the ghosts this time?” Josh laughed.

“Exactly. I don’t want anything following me back to the house,” I said, pointing my spatula at him.

He held his hands up in defeat. “We’ll be serious, right, Y/N?”

“Serious,” they nodded.

“Good,” I smiled. “Tonight is a big night.”

* * *

“Is everything going to fit?” Y/N asked as they watched me try to stuff another box of supplies into the back of my car.

“We’ll probably have to put some of it in the backseat, but we can make it work.”

Y/N’s eyes lit up in an instant. “Shotgun!”

Josh, who was currently leaned halfway into the backseat while he arranged some stuff in his bag, suddenly stood up and shot Y/N a look. “Not fair!”

“Sorry, Josh, you were too slow,” they shrugged.

“But I have way longer legs than you! There’s no way I’m cramming into the backseat with all the ghost stuff.”

“You should have thought of that earlier.”

“Tyler,” Josh sighed. “Help me out here.”

“You two are adults, you can work this out between yourselves without me in the middle of it.”

“Come on, Josh, you _always_ get shotgun because Tyler picks you up first. Can’t you let me have it just this once?”

“Not when we have a three hour car ride!”

“What if you get it on the way home? Then you’ll have plenty of legroom while you sleep.”

“Legroom doesn’t matter when you’re asleep.”

Tired of listening to their bickering, I came up with an idea that would both put an end to the debate and help with my master plan. While they were too busy paying attention to one another, I grabbed a box of equipment and carried it over to the passenger side of the car. Both of their heads immediately whipped in my direction when they heard the door open.

“You know what? Fine,” I said, dramatically dropping the box into the front seat. “Neither of you get it.”

“But my legs!” Josh said.

I leaned down and scooted the chair all the way forward, then turned to Josh with a grin. “There, all the legroom you could possibly need.”

He mumbled something under his breath before going back to messing with his backpack. Y/N turned to me and raised their eyebrows, but I simply smiled and adjusted my beanie. They gave me a light shove as I walked past them to close the trunk, making me laugh.

“Alright, let’s get in the car and get out of here,” I announced.

Fifteen minutes later, we found ourselves in a parking lot outside of a Columbus Starbucks. I was currently trying to convince Y/N to go inside and order our drinks for us to avoid running the risk of getting recognized, but they were not having any part of it.

“I just don’t understand why I have to go in alone!” they huffed. “You don’t usually care about getting recognized, so why is it a big deal today?”

“I’m just worried about people potentially following us all the way out to the school. Please, Y/N, I’ll pay for your drink.”

They went quiet for a moment, obviously contemplating my offer. After a moment’s pause, they spoke again.

“Alright, fine. But I’m getting a venti.”

“Fair deal,” I said as I dug my wallet out of my pocket.

Y/N took our drink orders - and my money - before getting out of the car and walking into Starbucks, although not without shooting us a look as they did so. Once they were safely inside, I turned around so that I could get a better look at Josh.

“What were you going to say this morning before Y/N woke up?”

Josh’s eyebrows furrowed, “What?”

“You know, I was asking you if you were finally going to tell them how you feel and you said you were thinking maybe _something _but then they woke up and interrupted you.”

“Oh, right. Um, well, I was just thinking that if the right moment comes up tonight… I might actually finally tell them how I feel.”

I tried my best to contain my visible excitement. “For real? Like, you’re not messing with me?”

His mouth curled up into a smile, “No, I’m not messing with you. I’m starting to think you may have actually been on to something this whole time with them feeling the same.”

“Finally! I told you I was being serious, Josh.”

“I know! I know. It’s just scary, you know? I don’t want to mess up the relationship I have with Y/N.”

“So I’ve heard,” I laughed quietly.

“Exactly,” he chuckled.

Y/N returned with our drinks a few minutes later and then we were back on the road. We had only been on the freeway for a few minutes when Josh pulled out some earbuds and plugged them into his phone.

“Want to listen?” he asked, passing one of them to Y/N.

“What? You two are listening to your own music back there?” I asked, glancing at them in the rearview mirror. “Who am I going to talk to?”

“Guess you shouldn’t have stuck both of us back here,” Y/N said with a satisfied smirk before taking a sip of their drink.

“Besides, we can still talk even with headphones in,” Josh chimed in.

“Yeah, whatever,” I sighed.

At least the drive was only a few hours. Then it would be time for the real fun to begin.

* * *

**Your POV**

You were woken up by Tyler cheerily announcing that you had arrived at your destination. The car shuddered to a stop and you slowly sat up, stretching out all the muscles that had grown tight from the weird position you were sleeping in. It hadn’t been your intention to fall asleep during the car ride, but between Josh’s music, the comfort of his shoulder, and the boys’ quiet conversation, you had been out in an instant.

Grass crunched beneath your feet as you got out of the car and joined the boys near the trunk. The sun was still high in the sky, but it wouldn’t be long before it sunk below the hills and cast all sorts of shadows across the place. You already didn’t like the look of it, between the shattered windows and crumbling bits of architecture. Despite your love of ghost hunting, you still had your hesitations about spending a night in this place.

“Is this legal?” you asked, noticing a nearby “No Trespassing” sign.

“I might have pulled some strings,” Tyler grunted as he grabbed more equipment.

“And by ‘pulled some strings’, do you mean paid someone off?”

He paused. “Maybe.”

You smiled and shook your head. Leave it to Tyler to pay someone off so that he could hunt ghosts that may or may not exist.

“Hey, I’m going to run inside and find a good place for us to set up headquarters. I’ll be back in a bit,” Tyler announced as he scooped up a flashlight.

“Be safe,” you said.

“I will.”

Tyler took off towards the building, leaving just you and Josh for the first time since last night. You were unsure of what to say, so you settled for looking through all the boxes Tyler had packed up to see what equipment he had decided was necessary.

“You missed Tyler’s comment about us sleeping together.”

“What?” you asked, whipping your head around to look at Josh. Your face was already burning from embarrassment. “What do you mean?”

“It was just a joke, since we slept in the same bed last night and then you fell asleep on my shoulder. He didn’t mean anything by it.”

“What an idiot,” you muttered, turning back to the box.

Josh didn’t say anything else. Out of the corner of your eye, you could just make out him rocking back and forth on his heels, hands dug deep into his pockets.

“Oh, um, Y/N?”

“Yeah?”

“About last night, I just wanted to say I’m sorry for how I was acting. I know it’s far from the first time you’ve dealt with me drunk, but I was on another level last night. Like, the cuddling and stuff. You didn’t have to do that.”

You stood up and leaned against the trunk of Tyler’s car. Josh was staring down at his feet, but met your eyes when he realized you were looking at him. His mouth briefly curled up into a smile.

“It wasn’t a big deal, Josh. Nothing happened that I was uncomfortable with and it was, uh, actually kind of-”

“Hey!” Tyler called. “I think I found a spot.”

You and Josh shared a look before picking up a box each and heading in Tyler’s direction.

“Nice, is what I was going to say,” you explained before Tyler was within earshot. “It was actually kind of nice.”

“Yeah,” Josh smiled. “I thought so too.”

“You guys aren’t going to believe this,” Tyler smiled as you walked up to him. “This place is crazy. Wait until you see all of it.”

You followed Tyler down a hallway, doing your best to take in all the sights while you still had sunlight coming in through the windows. Thankfully, the three of you only went a short distance until the hall opened up into a cafeteria.

“This is our home base. What do you think?” Tyler asked, confidently walking closer to the center of the room. You and Josh, on the other hand, hung back a little.

Large windows at either end of the room illuminated the cafeteria, revealing every particle of dust that was currently floating through the air. Most of the tables had been overturned or shoved aside, although there were a few that remained upright and usable. A few posters still hung on bulletin boards around the room, though nearly every one had been ripped or shredded in some capacity. Just thinking about what this room would look like in the dark was enough to send a chill down your spine.

“Creepy,” you finally muttered. Josh nodded along with you.

“We can start setting stuff up along these tables right here,” Tyler said, ignoring your comment. “That should give us plenty of room for the lights and equipment.”

You waddled over to the table and set down the box of things you had been carrying. There was still plenty of boxes that needed to be transported from the car to inside, and you really weren’t looking forward to the multiple trips back and forth. At least you would have the boys to keep you company.

“What are you waiting for? Let’s get the rest of the stuff inside,” Tyler smiled before practically skipping his way back down the hallway.

An hour later, all of the equipment was finally inside and mostly set up. You and Josh were making casual conversation while Tyler huddled over his equipment and made sure everything was running properly. The only other times you saw him this focused was when he was writing music.

“Ok, I think everything is ready to go,” he said, straightening up. “Why don’t we do a quick walkthrough of the school to get an idea of where everything is and where the best places for cameras are?”

“Sounds good,” you nodded.

“Josh, can you grab the map? It should be in that box right next to you.”

Josh turned around and dug through the box until he found the map Tyler was talking about. It was printed on what looked like a normal sheet of paper, but the back had Tyler’s handwriting all over it. You tried to get a glimpse of it, but Josh passed it off before you had a chance to make sense of any of it.

“What’s on the back, Ty?” you asked.

He flipped it over and looked at it, eyebrows furrowed, as if he had forgotten he ever wrote on it in the first place. “Just some notes, it looks like.” His mouth curled into a partial smile. “I can barely read it.”

You shook your head and grabbed a couple flashlights from the table, passing one off to Josh. He thanked you and immediately checked if the batteries were working.

“Lead the way, Tyler,” Josh said.

Your journey started down the hallway that you had entered the building from. A creepy feeling still lingered, but having a heavy flashlight in your hands helped to take away some of the edge. Josh was also staying close to you, so close, in fact, that your arms kept accidentally brushing up against each other. Thankfully, Tyler was too absorbed in locating good camera spots that he didn’t take notice.

This pattern continued for the next thirty minutes. You and Josh followed behind Tyler, occasionally offering your opinions on a spot for a camera, but mostly just trying to remember the layout of the building. The last thing you wanted was to accidentally get lost in one of the most haunted buildings in Ohio on the scariest day of the year. By the time that you returned to your “home base”, you were already having your reservations about tonight’s ghost hunting.

“Now that you’ve seen the entire building, what do you think?” Tyler asked. He was smiling, which was just about the furthest thing from what you felt like doing right now.

“If there’s anywhere we’re going to find ghosts in Ohio, it’s here,” you sighed. Josh nodded in agreement.

“You guys should probably go set up the cameras before it gets too dark. I can hang back and make sure we’re getting signal on all of them.”

“Did you bring the walkie talkies?” Josh asked.

“Yeah, they’re right here. Keep them on Channel 3 and whatever you do, don’t turn them off, ok?” You nodded as you turned on your walkie talkie and hooked it onto your jeans. Next to you, Josh did the same. “The cameras should be in that box over there. Make sure to let me know which one you’re setting up - the number is sharpied on the side - and then we can make sure the motion sensor is working.”

“Sounds good,” Josh said.

“Here’s the map of all the camera spots. Let me know if you have trouble finding any of them and I can try and direct you,” Tyler explained, hardly taking time to look up from one of his many laptops as he passed it to you. “Also try not to take too long, there’s a lot of stuff we still need to get ready.”

“We’ll be quick,” you added.

“And make sure to mark down where on the map each number is, just so we know.”

“Ty,” you laughed, “we’ve done this before, you don’t need to go over all the instructions every time.”

“Sorry,” he smiled. “Habit.”

“Ok, we’ll be back in a bit.”

Map and flashlight in hand, you and Josh headed off down the first hallway yet again. Your stomach was already flipping at the thought of spending the next half hour with Josh without Tyler’s interruptions, and for a moment you weren’t sure that you would be able to get any words out.

“I’m pretty sure he put the cameras in every remote corner of the school he could find,” you laughed, taking your first look at the map. “Look at this.”

Josh took the map from your hands, making sure to let his fingers brush up against yours. “You know Tyler, he likes to make sure that every inch of a place is being watched.”

“Yeah, but come on! The pool? That’s all the way at the other end of the school, but he also wants us to set one up by this window in the back corner.”

“Hey, it’s just an excuse for us to spend more time together, right?” Josh smiled at you.

You bit down on your lip, glad that the dim light inside was enough to mask most of your embarrassed expression. “Yeah, I suppose that’s a benefit.”

“Ok, I think the first camera spot is up here. You want to grab one of the ones from the box?”

You grabbed a camera from the box and passed it off to Josh, who then got it situated in the correct spot. While he worked on that, you radioed Tyler to let him know what was going on.

“Skeleton, come in,” you said, trying - and failing - to contain a smile at your code names.

“What’s up, Pumpkin?” he answered, voice warped by the walkie talkie.

“We’re setting up camera… what camera is it?”

“Three,” Josh grunted.

“Camera three at location one.”

“Alright, let me know when it’s on.”

You marked down camera three at location one on the map while you waited for Josh to finish setting things up.

“Done,” Josh sighed. “Camera is on.”

“Skeleton, come in.”

“I’m here.”

“Are we reading a signal on camera three?”

“We’re live. Can one of you wave an arm in front of it?”

“Josh?” you asked, turning to him.

Josh stepped away from you and closer to the camera, waving one of his arms slowly in front of it.

“Alright, we’ve got a video feed. You can move on.”

“Alright. Pumpkin and Alien out.”

You tucked the walkie talkie back into its place on your jeans and fell into step with Josh, who was already beginning to slowly make his way down the hall. When you caught up to him, he took the map from the top of the box and looked over it.

“Where to next?” you asked.

“It looks like we go upstairs and down another hall. Or we could go downstairs, if we wanted to switch things up.”

You were about to answer his question when something behind you rustled. Your head whipped around and you scanned the entire area behind you with the flashlight, searching for what could have caused the noise. The two of you were seemingly alone in the hallway, so you took a deep breath and turned back around.

“You ok?” Josh asked.

“Did you not hear that?”

“Hear what?”

You shook your head. “Nothing, I guess. I’m just wound up.”

“I thought you weren’t scared of stuff like this?”

“I’m not.”

“Then why’d you jump at nothing?” he teased.

“I didn’t jump at nothing! There was a sound.”

“You know I’m going to protect you if we run into something or someone, right?”

“Yeah, because you’re _so _intimidating,” you smiled.

“Hey! I’m only not intimidating to you because you know me. I can be a scary guy.”

“Whatever you say.”

“Is that a challenge?”

Your eyes went wide. “No, no, please, Josh.”

“I thought you weren’t scared?” he grinned.

“Well, um,” you stammered. “Ok, fine, maybe I’m a little scared.”

Josh walked a little closer to you and wrapped one of his arms around your shoulders, “Don’t worry, I’ve got your back.”

After forty-five minutes of setting up cameras, you were finally on the last one, which just so happened to be the one by the old pool. You weren’t particularly looking forward to the walk it would take to get there, but you were glad that you had Josh to keep you company… and protected from anything that could be lurking in the shadows.

“It’s weird being back in a high school,” you said as you passed another set of lockers. “I think the scariest thing is all the memories it’s bringing up.”

“Did you have a positive high school experience?”

“It was ok. I wasn’t super popular or anything, but I had a good group of friends. Definitely not the best four years of my life or anything. What about you?”

Josh shrugged. “About the same. I was kind of a dorky kid in high school.”

“Same.”

“Did you… date… very many people?”

You turned to look at him, only to realize he was already looking at you. Too shy to make eye contact, you looked down to your feet.

“Not really. My type was too specific for any of the people that I went to high school with.”

“And what is your type?”

“Oh, you know,” you said, a smirk starting to appear on your lips, “people who are nice, aren’t afraid to be themselves, into music, have tattoos and piercings and colorful hair and all that.”

“So… me?” Josh laughed.

“Not everything is about you, Josh,” you joined his laughter as you bumped into his shoulder. “What about you?”

“I dated a couple people, but it was never anything serious.”

“I meant like… what’s your type?”

“Oh, um, right,” he rubbed at the back of his neck with his free hand. “I guess I like people who can make me laugh, they support me in whatever I do, aren’t afraid to be themselves, just someone cool, you know?”

You shifted the box, putting the weight onto your other hip for awhile and to alleviate some of the tension in your shoulders from the question you were about to ask. “Am I cool?”

Josh paused for a moment, “I think you’re the coolest person I know, Y/N.”

You nodded, unsure of how to respond to what he had said. He started to talk again, but before he could get anything out, your walkie talkies crackled.

“This is Skeleton, reporting in.”

Josh sighed as he grabbed the walkie talkie off his hip. “This is Alien. What do you need?”

“Are you two almost done? It’s getting lonely over here.” A pause. “And I’m hungry.”

“We’re going to set up the last camera by the old pool and then we’ll be back.”

“Ok, well hurry. Skeleton out.”

Josh shook his head as he hooked his walkie talkie back onto his jeans.

“If he wants it done faster, he could have helped us out,” he laughed.

“Agreed.”

You went quiet, internally hoping that Josh would once again bring up the conversation you had just been having, but when a minute of silence passed you figured that was wishful thinking. Maybe you had been reading too much into what he was saying.

“Is this it?” he asked as you approached another set of double doors.

“Looks like it,” you answered, nodding towards a sign to the side of the door that read “Pool”.

He started to pull the door open, but stopped halfway through and turned to you. “Stay close to me, ok? I don’t like this room.”

You nodded and followed him into the room. As soon as you stepped over the threshold, he reached back and rested a hand on your arm.

“I’m here,” you said.

“Let’s get in and out of here as fast as we can.”

“Sounds good.”

You followed Josh further into the room, trying to ignore the eerie way that the room echoed with each step that you took. The single camera rattling in the box that you were carrying didn’t do much to help the atmosphere, either. Even with sunlight shining in through the dusty windows, this room felt undeniably creepier than all the rest.

“Where did Tyler want the camera?” Josh asked.

“The far corner, right above the bleachers.”

“Like, on the other side of the room?”

“Mmmhmm.”

Josh sighed and walked in that direction. You took a couple big steps to catch up to him and lightly bumped up against him. He turned towards you and smiled, reassured by your presence.

“Maybe you’re not the one who’s going to have to do the protecting,” you grinned.

“Maybe,” he laughed quietly. “I just hope that none of us have to protect anyone.”

“Agreed.”

Josh grabbed the camera from the box and went through the motions of setting it up while you radioed Tyler to let him know what was going on. As soon as you got the ok, you and Josh started to head back towards home base.

You had only made it about halfway along the pool when something crashed at the far side of the room. Both you and Josh turned around in a panic, frantically searching for the source of the noise, but there was nothing in sight.

“Let’s get out of here,” Josh said.

Before you had a chance to answer, he had clumsily wrapped his free hand around your flashlight hand and was starting to pull you towards the exit. Trying your best not to trip over your feet, you followed after him. Your heart was still pounding from whatever you had heard and having Josh’s hands wrapped around yours was only making it beat even harder.

You were relieved when you finally crashed through the doors and back into the hallway. Although it wouldn’t do much to actually protect you if there was something in the pool room, it felt nice to have a set of doors between you. With a heaving chest, you leaned back against a bank of lockers and looked to Josh.

“That was terrifying,” you sighed.

“Are you ok?” Josh asked, resting a hand on your arm. “I didn’t mean to drag you out of there, it just kind of happened.”

He stepped closer, leaving only about a foot of space in between you. You looked up at him, taking in what you could of his features in the dim light.

“I’m ok. Just a bit shaken up.”

“I wouldn’t have let anything happen to you.” Josh’s mouth just barely curled up into a smile.

He started to move closer, until his breath was fanning out across your face. Your heart had returned to pounding in your chest, but now it was for an entirely different reason. Was this really happening? Were you really about to kiss Josh in some abandoned high school that Tyler was taking you ghost hunting in?

Just as your eyes were about to flutter closed, you noticed a blinking light out of the corner of your eye. In a moment of panic, you put a hand on Josh’s chest and shoved him away as gently as you could. He stepped back immediately, stumbling over his words and avoiding eye contact with you.

“I’m so sorry, Y/N. I- thought, um, maybe that- I didn’t-”

“Josh,” you whispered. “It’s fine. It’s just…” you nodded towards the camera, hopefully subtly enough that Tyler wouldn’t catch it on the off chance that he was looking at it right now. Josh’s shoulders immediately dropped and he ran a hand through his hair.

“You’d think for someone who wanted us together so badly, he wouldn’t make it so impossible to get a moment alone.”

“Honestly,” you giggled.

“We might as well get back to him before he throws a fit.”

You nodded and tried to mask the disappointment that your kiss would have to wait until later. “Good idea.”

Josh started to walk down the hall and you fell into step with him, feeling a bit more confident about “accidentally” bumping into him now and again. Each time you did, you were met with a smile from Josh and a retaliation. By the time you made it back to your home base, it had almost become a game between you two.

“Ok, wait, before we go in there,” Josh said, stopping you a short distance from the archway that led to the cafeteria. “Are we going to tell him what happened?”

“With the crash? Or the… other thing?”

“The other thing,” Josh smiled.

“Do you think he saw?”

“I have no idea, but he’ll probably immediately make a comment if he did. He doesn’t know how to keep his mouth shut about that stuff,” he laughed.

“Ok, true. I say we wait for him to bring it up. You know, payback for all the teasing.”

“This is why I like you.”

With one final nod to each other, you walked back into the home base. Tyler immediately looked up from his computers and over at you.

“I was wondering when you were coming back! You set up that last camera forever ago.”

“There was a lot of ground to cover!” you retorted.

“Uh huh,” Tyler said, shooting the two of you a look.

“Don’t be jealous because we were out having fun,” Josh smiled as he took a seat across from Tyler.

“Who’s to say I wasn’t having fun here?” Tyler stood up straighter and crossed his arms.

“Alright, you two,” you sighed as you tossed the empty box into a corner. “Why don’t we figure out what food to get before you two start arguing too much.”

“We’re not arguing,” Tyler chimed in. “I’m just saying that I had fun here!”

Josh started to open his mouth, but you shot him a look and he quieted down again. This put a satisfied smirk on Tyler’s face, so you gave him a look for good measure too.

“Didn’t one of you mention a Taco Bell just a few minutes away? How does that sound?” you asked.

“Did you have to ask?” Tyler smiled.

“Yeah, Tyler wrote a whole song about it,” Josh smirked.

“Hey! I thought we made a rule that we don’t talk about that.”

“Consider it payback.”

“Ok, who’s going to get the food?” you asked, ignoring their bickering. “Because after that whole Starbucks ordeal today, it’s not going to be me.”

“I can go,” Josh said, already standing up again. “Just let me know what you want.”

The next few minutes were spent deciding what food to get and making sure that Josh had it all written down in his phone so he wouldn’t forget. Once that was settled, Tyler tossed him his keys and Josh wandered off down the hall, still carrying a flashlight in his hand. The sun was rapidly setting and you were trying to enjoy the little bit of light you had left.

“You and Josh seem to be awful friendly,” Tyler said, his eyes never leaving the computer.

Your entire body tensed at his words and you were suddenly very glad that his focus was elsewhere. He had yet to fess up to seeing you and Josh almost kiss on camera, but it wasn’t unlike Tyler to hold onto information until an opportune moment.

“What do you mean by that?”

“You two were pretty tense with each other this morning, aside from you falling asleep on him in the car. It’s nice to see you two getting along again.”

“Right. Yeah.”

“Are you going to tell him how you feel?” Tyler asked, finally looking up from his laptop.

You avoided eye contact, afraid it would give too much information away. If Tyler was asking if you were going to confess, he definitely hadn’t seen what happened between you and Josh. That, or he was playing the long con.

You put on your best plain expression and finally met Tyler’s eyes. “I hadn’t really thought about it. I probably wouldn’t today, just because it’s Halloween and all.”

“What does Halloween have to do with it?”

“Don’t you think it’s kinda dorky to confess your feelings on Halloween? Like, that would be our anniversary forever.”

“Dorky? It’s _awesome_,” Tyler smiled. “Your anniversary would be on the spookiest day of the year.”

“I guess?”

“But, more importantly, you are going to tell him at some point?”

“I don’t see why I wouldn’t. It’s pretty clear that he feels the same now.”

“And to think, just a few days ago you were telling me you and Josh were nothing more than friends.”

“A lot has changed since then!” you said, unintentionally raising your voice. It echoed a little across the room. “Two days ago I hadn’t held his hand during a scary movie or spent an entire night with him complimenting me or slept in the same bed as him or almost-” you caught yourself just in time to avoid telling Tyler the one thing you didn’t want him to know. He picked up on your change in demeanor.

“Almost what?” he asked.

“Nothing. Forget I said anything.”

“Almost what, Y/N? Tell me.”

“I’m not going to tell you, Ty.”

“Please? I won’t tell Josh you told me.”

“I don’t care what Josh knows. I don’t want _you _to know.”

“Don’t want me to know what?” Tyler said. He was growing more desperate.

“No.”

“Something did happen at my house, didn’t it? What did you two do last night?”

“Nothing! Nothing happened.”

“You’ve always been a bad liar.”

“I’m not lying! Nothing happened last night.”

“Today?”

“No.”

“Liar.”

“Tyler, can we just drop this please?”

Tyler finally calmed down. It wasn’t often that you used his full name, which let him know how serious you were about not discussing this any further. He directed his attention back to his laptops, and after a bit of silence offered for you to come check out what he was seeing on the cameras, which wasn’t much.

At least, for now.

* * *

**Josh’s POV**

“What time is it?” Y/N asked as they pulled on a headlamp.

“Two in the morning. Perfect time to start ghost hunting,” Tyler grinned as he did the same.

“Yeah, perfect,” I said, taking a quick glance around the room.

Although Y/N and Tyler were big on ghost hunting, I always had my reservations when it came to adventures like this. My anxiety was bad enough as it was, and walking around dark buildings trying to find things that could potentially hurt us didn’t exactly do much to help it. Regardless, I knew how much it meant to the two of them to have me come along, so I joined along on one or two trips a year to please them.

“How do I look?” Y/N asked, giving Tyler and I a little spin.

“Amazing,” I laughed. “The headlamp really completes the look.”

They smiled and turned to Tyler, who simply gave them a thumbs up.

“Alright, I think we’re ready to go. Do you two have all your stuff together?”

I double checked that I had my walkie talkie and the equipment that Tyler had put me in charge of before giving him a nod. Next to me, Y/N did the same.

“Then let’s go.”

Tyler led the way down the hall, allowing Y/N and I to lag behind. They were staying close to me which I was thankful for. The last thing I wanted was to get split up from the other two in a place that I could barely remember the layout of. Even though I ran regularly, I didn’t really want to put those skills to use in this setting.

The school had a completely different atmosphere now that it was dark, even with the combined light of our headlamps. Bent and rusted lockers were around every corner, looming out from the darkness. Dust particles and cobwebs floated freely through the air, occasionally being kicked up by our feet as we passed. There was even the occasional bird that flew around overhead, the sound of its wings amplified by the empty space.

“Where are we going?” Y/N finally asked. The sudden sound of their voice almost made me jump.

“I wanted to check out the window where people report seeing the figure. You know, see if we can get an EMF reading or a temperature change or something,” Tyler answered.

I watched as Y/N nodded in agreement. A brief desire to voice my concern bubbled in my chest, but it quickly subsided again. There was no way Y/N - or more likely, Tyler - was letting me get out of this one.

“You doing ok, Josh?” Y/N asked quietly.

“Yeah, I’m ok. Just a little nervous.”

They glanced at Tyler for a moment before turning back to me and taking hold of my hand. “It’s ok, I’ve got your back.”

I squeezed their hand as a silent thank you while we continued to walk down the hall. Eventually, Tyler brought us to the window where the figure was rumored to be seen, which just so happened to be inside a classroom full of toppled desks and chairs and countless cobwebs. Y/N dropped my hand as we walked into the room, not wanting to run the risk of being seen by Tyler. Part of me wanted to grab it again, not caring what Tyler would say, just to have the comfort.

“Josh, can I get a temperature read on the room?” Tyler asked.

I grabbed the thermometer from my bag and aimed it towards the other side of the room.

“61.”

“And what about over here?”

“58.”

“That’s a significant drop!” Tyler grinned. I had to admit, as much as ghost hunting scared me, I did enjoy seeing how excited he got over little discoveries like this.

“To be fair, we are standing by a window,” Y/N chimed in.

Tyler’s face fell in an instant. “Ok, true, but it’s worth noting. We can try out the thermal cameras for awhile and then do the EMF reader.”

“Sounds good.”

I slowly wandered around the room while Tyler got the thermal camera ready. There were a few old posters on the walls, but most of them had been washed out by the sun and were mostly unreadable now. Looking at them gave me a weird feeling in my stomach, like I was reading something that I wasn’t supposed to.

“Hey, Josh, come back over here and stand next to Y/N.”

I slowly wandered back towards Tyler and Y/N and did as he said. He had a huge smile on his face as he aimed the thermal camera in our direction.

“This new thermal camera is awesome! Way better than the old one. Hey, Y/N, can you get a little closer to Josh.”

“Yeah.”

Y/N stepped closer to me so that their arm was almost pressed up against mine. I could feel my face starting to heat up from embarrassment, I just hoped that-

“Josh! Dude, your face just got _way_ redder,” Tyler grinned. “I can see it on the camera.”

-Tyler didn’t notice.

“I’m nervous,” I muttered, not that it really mattered. Y/N already knew exactly why I would be getting embarrassed.

“Yeah, ok,” he scoffed.

I rolled my eyes and stepped away from Y/N. They walked over and stood next to Tyler so that they could get a better look at the thermal camera, but I didn’t really care. The less I knew about what else was in the room, the better.

“Do you see that?” Tyler muttered.

“The red spot?”

“Yeah, in the corner.”

“I see it.”

I turned and looked in the direction that they were looking. All I saw was some old books sitting on a dusty shelf.

“Is it still there?” Y/N asked.

“Nope, it’s gone.”

A chill ran down my spine. I didn’t like the sound of that one bit.

“Get me an EMF reader,” Tyler said, giving Y/N’s arm a light tap.

They grabbed one from their bag and passed it off to Tyler. He held it up and started to walk towards the corner where they had seen… whatever it was.

“Is it doing anything?” Y/N whispered.

Tyler shook his head.

“Ask a question.”

Tyler cleared his throat. “Is there anything here with us?”

The room was silent as we waited for something to happen. I could see Y/N looking at me out of the corner of my eye, but my focus was on the EMF reader. It was hovering around green right now, but I was just waiting for it to spike at any moment.

“Ask again,” Y/N suggested.

Again, Tyler cleared his throat. “Is there anything here with us?”

The EMF reader spiked to red before immediately dying down again. Tyler spun around and looked between Y/N and I. All of the color had drained from his face.

“Are you ok?” I asked.

“What was that?” he asked quietly.

“It probably picked up on something else,” Y/N said, quickly searching for a reasonable explanation. “Like your walkie talkie.”

“My walkie talkie isn’t on.”

“Try it anyway.”

Tyler grabbed his walkie talkie and held the EMF reader up to it. He waited for a few seconds, but nothing came up. It stayed on green the entire time.

“Maybe it was a fluke,” Y/N chimed in. “Why don’t we try another question and see what happens?”

Tyler nodded and turned back around, holding the EMF reader up once again.

“Are you the one who stands in the windows at sunset?”

It was silent again. The light stayed at green for a few seconds, and for a brief moment I was really starting to believe that the first time had been a fluke. Then it suddenly spiked up to red again.

Tyler dropped the EMF reader and jumped away from it. It hit the ground and bounced once before landing face up. The light was still dancing between green and yellow.

“Are you ok? Did something hurt you?” Y/N asked, reaching out to put a hand on Tyler’s shoulder.

“No, no, it just scared me. I’m fine.”

“It’s still going off,” I added.

Tyler and Y/N both turned to look at the EMF reader. The lights were still blinking rapidly.

“I think we should get out of here,” Y/N said. “I’d rather not mess with… whatever this is and there’s plenty more of the school to explore.”

“Agreed,” Tyler nodded.

He ventured into the middle of the room just long enough to pick up the EMF reader and pass it back off to Y/N. As soon as we had that, we quickly gathered up our things and got out into the hall, making sure to shut the door behind us.

“I knew this place was supposed to be haunted…” Tyler said, “but I never expected anything like that to happen.”

“Let’s just stick together for now and see what there is to see,” Y/N answered.

I was the last one to chime in, “I like that idea.”

* * *

“Three am, you know what that means,” Tyler said, checking the time on his watch.

I swallowed hard. After spending the last hour walking around the school with Y/N and Tyler - occasionally stopping to use the thermal camera or EMF reader but not finding much - I had finally calmed down some after the window man incident. It didn’t help that I already knew exactly what Tyler was going to say next.

“It’s prime ghost time. We should split up so we can cover more ground.”

“Who’s going where?” Y/N asked.

“I can take the upstairs since that seems to have the most activity. You two can decide between downstairs and the other end of the school.”

“Josh?” Y/N asked, turning to me. “Do you have a preference?”

“You can take whatever you want.”

“Why don’t you take the downstairs? And I can take the other end over by the pool.”

“Are you sure?”

Y/N smiled at me, “I’m sure.”

“Ok.”

“Remember, keep your walkie talkies on Channel 3 at all times. Do not turn them off for whatever reason and radio in with your location if you need help,” Tyler said.

“Got it,” Y/N nodded.

“Also with any spooky findings,” he added with a smile. “Alright, you know the drill.”

“Hands in,” Y/N sighed.

The three of us put our hands together. Tyler looked around the circle before starting his countdown.

“3… 2… 1... “

“Spooky squad!” we all chanted together.

“Alright, now let’s go find some ghosts!” Tyler grinned, doing a little jump as he did so.

We all double checked that our walkie talkies were working before splitting up. I headed downstairs and, now that I was out of sight, pulled out the backup flashlight that I had in my bag. Tyler and Y/N always said I was excessive, but I wanted as much area around me to be illuminated as possible.

My walkie talkie crackled, making me jump.

“This is Skeleton reporting in. I’m walking by the room we were in and I swear there’s a cold draft coming from under the door. It’s freezing.”

“This is Alien. Copy.”

“Pumpkin here. You better not open that door.”

“Come on, Pumpkin, not even _I’m_ that stupid.”

“I’ve seen you do questionable things.”

“Ok, but none of those involved a spirit potentially following me home.”

“Point taken.”

“Alright, just checking in. Skeleton out.”

“Alien out.”

“Pumpkin out.”

I hooked my walkie talkie back onto my jeans and continued down the hallway. There was a door at the end of the hallway that was partially cracked, so I decided to check it out. Most of the rooms in this building were shut tight, so there had to be a reason that this one wasn’t, right?

My heart started to beat harder with each step that I took towards the door. There was a little patch of light that was just visible inside, probably from the moon. Other than that, I couldn’t make anything out.

I had just started to open the door when something rushed over my head, making me drop to the ground. My heart was pounding in my chest now, so hard that I could hear it in my ears. In an attempt to figure out what that had been, I turned my flashlight down towards the end of the hall in the direction the thing had gone. There was just enough light for me to be able to make out a bird rounding the corner. My shoulders dropped out of relief and I laid back on the floor until my breaths returned to normal.

“This is Alien, checking in. A bird just flew out of one of the rooms and scared the crap out of me. Keep an eye out.”

“This is Pumpkin. Copy.”

“Skeleton. Copy.”

This pattern continued for the next thirty minutes or so. I continued to wander around the downstairs of the school, doing more exploration than I was ghost hunting. As long as Y/N and Tyler were involved, I was willing to participate, but there was no way I was going to actively seek out ghosts on my own.

“This is Pumpkin, checking in. How is everyone doing?”

“This is Alien. I’m doing alright.”

“Same here. Skeleton?”

I stood in place, waiting to move until we got an answer from Tyler. He was usually pretty quick to check in when asked, so this silence from him was unnerving.

“Skeleton? You there?” Y/N asked again.

Still nothing.

“I’ll go upstairs and see if I can find him. Stay where you are, Pumpkin.”

I hooked my walkie talkie back onto my jeans and started to head in the direction of one of the staircases. Although the school was big, it wasn’t so big that I wouldn’t be able to find Tyler in a timely manner. My only concern was the potential of having to go in the ghost room alone. That wasn’t my ideal situation by any means.

Just as I reached the top of the stairs, there was a loud crash from the other side of the school. The sound echoed through the halls, bouncing off walls. It was followed shortly after by Y/N yelling, obviously scared by whatever was happening. I stood frozen at the top of the stairs, trying to decide if I should go look for Tyler or make sure Y/N was ok.

Not wanting to put off a decision any longer, I headed in Y/N’s direction since they seemed to be in more immediate danger. They didn’t usually yell when they were scared, so that alone was enough to have me worried enough to make sure they were ok first. Besides, Tyler was prone to going off to do things on his own. He was probably fine.

Right?

My feet carried me quickly down the hall towards the source of the sound. If I remembered the layout of the school correctly, I would be getting there in less than a minute. I guess there was a benefit to all my running.

I quickly rounded a corner, only to immediately spot Y/N who was coming down the same hallway. There was just barely enough time for me to slow down before we completely collided into one another. My back was on the floor in seconds and Y/N was pressed on top of me, the two of us just barely separated by their arms.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t expect you to be running this way,” they said, the tiniest hint of a smile on their face.

“I wanted to make sure you were ok.”

Y/N’s hands moved to the side of my face and before I knew it, their lips were on mine. I moved my arms to hold onto their waist, steadying them in the awkward position that we were in. Their lips were soft and I could feel every bit of tension and longing that we had shared over the last few days within it. Even though were laying on the floor in some remote, abandoned building, I never wanted it to end.

I started to deepen the kiss, but Y/N pulled away and rolled off of me. They helped me up to a sitting position and brushed some of the dust off my shoulders.

“We need to find Tyler.”

“You’re right,” I said, all the excitement of the kiss wearing off as I remembered the situation we were in.

“But before we do that…”

Y/N leaned over and gave me another quick kiss. I was unable to keep the giddy smile off my face afterwards, even as we stood up and started to head towards the stairs.

“Skeleton, this is Pumpkin. Please report in.”

The walkie talkie crackled hardly a second later.

“This is Skeleton. I’m at home base. Get back here asap.”

“He’s ok,” Y/N sighed, immediately putting their walkie talkie away. “He must have found something big, let’s get back there.”

Y/N and I quickly made our way back to the cafeteria, both of our minds reeling from both the kiss and the excitement of whatever Tyler had potentially found.

Tyler’s face lit up the moment that we stumbled into the cafeteria, our chests heaving. He quickly beckoned us over to his computers.

“You guys will never believe what the cameras picked up. It has to be one of the scariest things that I’ve ever seen,” he grinned as we grew closer. “Come look.”

Y/N and I took a spot on either side of Tyler. He had one of the video feeds up with a timestamp that was hardly more than ten minutes ago. After confirming that we were both ready to see this footage, he hit play and stepped back.

The video showed an empty hallway for the first few seconds, then I came barreling out of the darkness on one part of the screen. Shortly after, Y/N appeared. All of the information quickly pieced together in my mind and I bit down nervously on my lip. My face only continued to burn more and more as the rest of the video played, showing everything from Y/N falling on top of me to us sharing a second kiss.

“Can you believe that?” Tyler laughed, still keeping up his act. “Terrifying.”

“Oh my gosh,” Y/N sighed, burying their face in their hands. “I can’t believe _you_, Tyler.”

“_You_ can’t believe _me_? I’m not the one that took three days to finally fess up about their feelings! Do you know how hard I was trying to get the two of you to do it?”

“Is that why you were being so weird?” I asked.

“Yes! My whole plan was to get one of you to finally admit how you felt by the end of our spooky extravaganza and it worked!”

“That explains so much…” Y/N said.

“I got Josh to flirt with you by throwing pumpkin seeds, I pretended to sleep during the movie - and then actually fell asleep -, I forced you guys into a couple’s costume, I slammed that locker door to scare Y/N and get Josh to come running…”

“That was _you_?” Y/N asked. “Do you know how bad you scared me?”

“But it worked! Look at you two now!” he said with a proud smile.

“Tyler, listen, I really appreciate all you did, but you really didn’t have to get into the middle of all this.”

“I disagree,” he said, crossing his arms. “You two were adamant that the other one didn’t feel the same so I needed to step in to make sure you did know.”

“At least we don’t have to worry about him doing it again in the future.”

“True,” I nodded. “Alright, now how about we pack up our stuff and get out of here? I’d really rather not spend anymore time in this place than I have to.”

“Agreed,” Tyler nodded. “Let’s pack up the stuff and go.”

* * *

The sun was just beginning to come up as we got closer to Columbus. Y/N was resting on my shoulder yet again, although this time I was able to shamelessly hold their hand too. We were listening to my headphones again, much to Tyler’s dismay, as we enjoyed the first calm moment since we had arrived at the building the night before.

“Hey, Josh?” Y/N whispered.

“Yeah?”

“We’re like… together, right? Officially?”

“If you want to be.”

“I want to be,” they said, giving my hand a light squeeze.

“Then we’re together.”

“As of Halloween? Or today?”

“What do you think? Because we kissed today, but we kind of had our whole moment yesterday.”

“Whole moment?” Tyler asked.

“Tyler,” I laughed. “Can you not interrupt for once?”

“Sorry, but you owe me that story.”

“That’s fair.”

“Ok, as you were,” Tyler said, waving one of his hands at us.

“Anyway,” I smiled. “What do you think?”

“I vote Halloween. It’s spookier.”

“And special,” I said, leaning my head onto Y/N’s.

“Yeah,” they smiled. “Spookily special.”


End file.
